(no subject)
Dec. 9th, 2015 12:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressTonight, I was whiny on twitter. It was nothing *but* whining too, complaining about having to bike home in the cold. Which is my own fault entirely --I mean, obviously I can't change the weather, but I can not stop for dinner and I can leave school earlier, et cetera.
Anyways, as if to reward me for my whining, my ski goggles --which I use for eye protection while bicycling in the cold, wind, rain, etc-- fell out of my bag and are lost somewhere to Mass Ave or Willow st. I was very nearly home, I turned around and relooped and probably rode an extra two miles looking. No dice.
So I was pretty bummed when I got home. I was putting my leftovers in the fridge. I looked down.
The glue trap we've had tucked between the stove and the fridge had caught a mouse. Which is what it's there for and what it's supposed to do. We agreed originally that we would use killing traps (including glue) instead of capture, because we couldn't guarantee anyone could get to it in time, or that there was anywhere safe to release a captive. We didn't want slow death by starvation, and we didn't want them to come right back into the house, and for mice, that means glue and snaps.
"I need an adult" I whispered, because it was staring up at me and struggling and just a tiny living thing that I am fucking terrified of. I can't rationally deal with mice, they make my brain go all sideways and shifting and panicky and thank god Becca's light was on and I could beg her for help.
She scooped it into a spare jar, trap and all, and put it in the freezer. You can't get a mouse off of a glue trap, it was a dead creature walking. Then she double checked the recommendations, and found that in general, crushing to the head is faster, more humane. Freezing is not how you kill a rodent cleanly. Okay then.
Okay then.
I witnessed, because if I am going to condemn a living creature to death, I would like to think I have the honor to be as present and aware as possible. Becca sealed it into a plastic bag, and got a boot. She said her prayer aloud (I recognized the words as Hebrew, but I did not know the meaning), I whispered mine silent. I assumed Gaea was the right deity, though I do not often speak with her indoors.
The remains went in the trash.
And it is stupid and needless and cruel. But glue traps are what we have, and glue traps are such that once it's caught, it's not going to survive, it's just a matter of how quick, and how painless, we can make the death. There was no glory in it (there never is).
Whining on twitter doesn't seem right for this.
May your gods grant you the good you deserve in death, little mouse. I'm sorry it had to be this way. I would not change it --we can't have you in the house, you eat our food and foul our floors-- but I do not have to feel good of it either.
Any day this month is ready to stop sucking would be okay by me.
~Sor
MOOP!
Anyways, as if to reward me for my whining, my ski goggles --which I use for eye protection while bicycling in the cold, wind, rain, etc-- fell out of my bag and are lost somewhere to Mass Ave or Willow st. I was very nearly home, I turned around and relooped and probably rode an extra two miles looking. No dice.
So I was pretty bummed when I got home. I was putting my leftovers in the fridge. I looked down.
The glue trap we've had tucked between the stove and the fridge had caught a mouse. Which is what it's there for and what it's supposed to do. We agreed originally that we would use killing traps (including glue) instead of capture, because we couldn't guarantee anyone could get to it in time, or that there was anywhere safe to release a captive. We didn't want slow death by starvation, and we didn't want them to come right back into the house, and for mice, that means glue and snaps.
"I need an adult" I whispered, because it was staring up at me and struggling and just a tiny living thing that I am fucking terrified of. I can't rationally deal with mice, they make my brain go all sideways and shifting and panicky and thank god Becca's light was on and I could beg her for help.
She scooped it into a spare jar, trap and all, and put it in the freezer. You can't get a mouse off of a glue trap, it was a dead creature walking. Then she double checked the recommendations, and found that in general, crushing to the head is faster, more humane. Freezing is not how you kill a rodent cleanly. Okay then.
Okay then.
I witnessed, because if I am going to condemn a living creature to death, I would like to think I have the honor to be as present and aware as possible. Becca sealed it into a plastic bag, and got a boot. She said her prayer aloud (I recognized the words as Hebrew, but I did not know the meaning), I whispered mine silent. I assumed Gaea was the right deity, though I do not often speak with her indoors.
The remains went in the trash.
And it is stupid and needless and cruel. But glue traps are what we have, and glue traps are such that once it's caught, it's not going to survive, it's just a matter of how quick, and how painless, we can make the death. There was no glory in it (there never is).
Whining on twitter doesn't seem right for this.
May your gods grant you the good you deserve in death, little mouse. I'm sorry it had to be this way. I would not change it --we can't have you in the house, you eat our food and foul our floors-- but I do not have to feel good of it either.
Any day this month is ready to stop sucking would be okay by me.
~Sor
MOOP!
no subject
on 2015-12-10 03:08 pm (UTC)I really respect this and am sorry it had to happen. :-(
I had to mercy-kill a wild rat a few years back and it really sucked. Took me a good day at least to feel right again.