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Selfishness and the Bleeding Heart
Nov. 24th, 2004 11:40 amThe mouse-trapping in the garage continues. Just about every trap is sprung each night, and I find that I am relieved that it means another mouse gets to live another day. On the other hand, when I find dead mice in the traps with their LITTLE SKULLS CRUSHED ;_; ;_; ;_; ....I feel a strange sense of accomplishment, too. I'm not sure I can explain it. It's akin to the feeling I get when I reel in a fish: That 'Hah! Caught one!' thing that people refer to as sportsmanship. And then I feel doubly guilty, both for having killed the mouse AND for feeling good about it, even a little.
And I do feel dreadfully guilty for killing them. (How I have suddenly been put in charge of this task, when it's the Captain and GT who want them gone, is beyond me. I think it has something to do with the fact that I live above the garage - and that I asked to save the dead mice.) It's not that they're adorable (though they are). It's that it's a life. And it may not matter much to us, but if you're that mouse... it matters a whole hell of a lot.
I've been made fun of (hah! preposition RIGHT THERE at the end of a phrase) more or less my entire life for being a bleeding-heart about animals. I once stopped fishing because I felt too bad for the fish. Then I decided...I like to eat fish. <3 And I can feel bad for the fish and accept that I don't want to go the veggiesaurus route at the same time. I can handle that.
Killing mice because OMGWTFBBQ THEY CANNOT LIVE IN OUR GARAGE THEY ARE SLEEPING IN THAT INSULATION STUFFED IN THE WALLS THAT WE NEVER SEE AND ONCE THEY MADE A NEST IN THE TRACTOR is another matter. The only thing that is getting me through (as opposed to, say, going downstairs every night and springing the traps) is knowing that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
accipiter's birdies will have tasty mousicles. And that's okay.
But, dammit, I hope the empty sprung traps do not imply wounded mice in the walls. Possibly dying slowly. Not only would that upset me in abstract, but... rotting mice in the walls. RIGHT BESIDE MY BATHROOM. Ugh. I can only hope the other mice will resort to cannibalism before said hypothetical mice begin to rot.
And I do feel dreadfully guilty for killing them. (How I have suddenly been put in charge of this task, when it's the Captain and GT who want them gone, is beyond me. I think it has something to do with the fact that I live above the garage - and that I asked to save the dead mice.) It's not that they're adorable (though they are). It's that it's a life. And it may not matter much to us, but if you're that mouse... it matters a whole hell of a lot.
I've been made fun of (hah! preposition RIGHT THERE at the end of a phrase) more or less my entire life for being a bleeding-heart about animals. I once stopped fishing because I felt too bad for the fish. Then I decided...I like to eat fish. <3 And I can feel bad for the fish and accept that I don't want to go the veggiesaurus route at the same time. I can handle that.
Killing mice because OMGWTFBBQ THEY CANNOT LIVE IN OUR GARAGE THEY ARE SLEEPING IN THAT INSULATION STUFFED IN THE WALLS THAT WE NEVER SEE AND ONCE THEY MADE A NEST IN THE TRACTOR is another matter. The only thing that is getting me through (as opposed to, say, going downstairs every night and springing the traps) is knowing that
accipiter's birdies will have tasty mousicles. And that's okay.But, dammit, I hope the empty sprung traps do not imply wounded mice in the walls. Possibly dying slowly. Not only would that upset me in abstract, but... rotting mice in the walls. RIGHT BESIDE MY BATHROOM. Ugh. I can only hope the other mice will resort to cannibalism before said hypothetical mice begin to rot.
