what surrounds us

I've been thinking lately, especially when taking walks later in the evening, about everything that surrounds us. Here i am talking about everything. From my house to class there is a fifteen minute walk (ten or less if i am faster than usual) and during this walk i see pavement, plants, cars, sometimes people, very often cats, parks, stray children, trees, bees, the sky, clouds, the sun. These are all things that exist with us, in a coexisting mess. Once, while on my walk to class, i saw some kids throwing rocks at an animal. Some other time a person was taking flowers from the ground. They weren't even pretty. Are we allowed to do this? What's the hierarchy between us and the rest, and should we even count it as separate things; us and the rest? I say, we come from the same exact materials. Ask a biologist and he'll tell you "it's organs and cells." Ask a physics professional and they'll tell you "see, it's all about the atoms." Atoms then. Okay. If I am atoms and the cats are atoms and the cars are atoms, then who put me in charge? I understand the car coming right after me for its nature; I am its mother, we are its parents and rightful creators. But the cat? He had just wandered around for centuries until we arrived, fully conscious, and decided to put him in a home and feed him dry food. I'm sure his resentment is terribly painful. This is why when I see them (that is, the cats) frolicking around in the plastic landfills and the fields of dead plants, I think: "that's how it should be. Them above our pollution. And soon enough, them above us."