Affinity for certain animals

There is a crisis of flies in the kitchen. Several days ago I noticed that there were many fruit flies on two overipe pears. Out went the pears and out went the fruit flies. I managed to shoo most of them out the door where they can gorge on the tomatoes.
I didn't suck them in to the vacuum as I have devloped a reverence for almost all living things. Life itself is such a miraculous thing that I have almost become a Jain. I watch for ants and beetles as I walk and I shoo bees out of the house with the broom. I sometimes feel guilty about picking things from the garden as they are also living things but that would lead to a rather strict weight loss.
I do eat the meat that I buy in the grocery store. It is already dead and I didn't kill it. So I realize that I have an affinity with certain animals. My brothers are the vulture and the hyena and the jackal. We are all scavengers, dining on dead things and offal. It is nice to know that I have companions.
As to the flies. I wasn't able to scoot them all out of the door so I decided to leave the remaining two or three alone. Live and let live. That all came to a roaring halt this morning. Fruit flies must have a gestation period of about fifteen minutes. There were tons of them on the Kitchen-Aid mixer. There are many things that I can tolerate but messing with the sacred mixer is not one of them. Out came the broom, open went the door, and the shooing began. The remainders were subjected to the vacuum. The spider that lives in the corner is going to have to live on the occasional house-fly that sneaks in the door. There are a few fruit flies still left in the kitchen and I am sure that they will be providing the spider with a smorgasbord soon. He just better stay away from the mixer or he too will join the fruit flies in the vacuum.
Does the respect for living things intensify as we approach the end of our turn? I think that I will mull that over for a while. I don't have much respect for my fellow human beings but I revel in the glory of the maple tree as it is donning its fall oufit. I think that I will go out on the porch and have a conversation with my friend basil. (That's baysil, not Baasil.).