Bull frogs not choppers
Hover near us as we sleep.
Their croaks a comfort.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Rarely do I participate in euthanasia, but yesterday I was reminded that as loving, cute and cuddly dogs can be, they can, in an instant be driven by their instincts to be pretty quick killing machines.
Yesterday, Luna, our dog of two years, who has actively been eyeing and pursuing squirrels and an occasional cat, finally nabbed one of the two little tree rodents that was scurrying across our yard. In a blur it was in her mouth and she was shaking the life out of it. We got her to release it, and it tried to crawl away, but it was obviously in bad shape and wasn’t going to live. So I did what I thought was the humane thing to do, grabbed a shovel, and gave the suffering creature a few good wacks on the head to end its suffering.
The incident very much reminded me of a time growing up when my dad forced me to use a baseball bat to club a gopher to death. That also involved a dog. In that case it was our small family dog named Ginger who, after the gopher was flushed out of its hole, I thought was going to bite our dog. So at my dad’s insistence, I killed it.
I don’t relish having to participate in either incident, though I somewhat understand both. And I certainly don’t fault the dogs. I just find it interesting that some animals can act so viciously in one instant than turn right back into that loving, cuddly, warm furry companion in the next.
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