Alien Thoughts

Most every night I go outside and look at the sky. Although we are away from most light pollution, we still have some and I can only see the major stars, planets and constellations...not the vast sea of stars that one might see in the Rockies of Colorado, say. I can see Mars, Orion, Gemini, Jupiter, Mercury, etc. 

Tonight, as I stepped outside, I startled a rabbit. She scurried across the back yard, under the fence and into the neighbor's back yard. She is out there most nights. I remember when our dog, Matty was still alive, she would play with the rabbits, squirrels and birds. They coexisted.

That led me to think about Aliens in Outer Space (yes, I think of such things) and how we try to portray them as exotic creatures. Some friendly and spiritual and some that are maniacal and threatening. 

After we sent our first probes to Mars and failed to find the little green Martians, we have begun to look for microbes or water or exotic microorganisms. So, it is either Alien human-like beings or Alien amoebas, rotifers or parameciums.

We rarely take into consideration the fact that another planet might have intelligent beings with pets and flowers and wild animals...the total diversity of life that we harbor here on Earth. Will a being on another planet keep animals for eating? Will he keep some as pets? Will they have zoos?

I pondered that briefly as I watched the rabbit steal back into the yard and I thought of Matty. I thought about when the first humans arrive on Mars. I can imagine a Martian explorer stepping out of his habitat after a night on Mars, looking up at the sky and muttering to himself, "I wish my dog was here..."