A sad post...

Dear Diary,

Yesterday, Mary found a tiny mouse by the porch doorstep, obviously in distress.  It was walking in circles and was very wobbly.  Commonsense said, leave it, it is dying but my heart just couldn't let it stay out there with rain coming.  We gathered dried grass in a box, added a shallow dish of water and gently scooped it up and placed it in its soft nest.  This is a photograph of the little one late in the day.

After Mary left, I kept watch until I went to bed.  It did seem to rally a bit, borrowing into the grass and taking a sip of water.  I covered the box with a towel to keep it warm but this morning the little one was dead.  Now, I fully expected that.  I think it was too far gone when we found it but something in me wanted to be sure that it died safe in a soft nest of grass, not in a cold, soaking rain.  Call me an old softy but I don't think any creature should suffer, even this tiny grey mouse, and if I eased its last hours even a little bit it is a good thing.  I will bury it in a while and then go out and feed my squirrels and chipmunks.  Life goes on and we do what we can.  Compassion, I've always thought, is our greatest virtue.

I don’t know why some people feel such compassion for animals while others mistreat and abused them.  What happened in their young lives to bend them that way?  I grew up in a home that treated animals like family.  I remember when I was in school I had a pet mouse that my science teacher had used to conduct maze experiments.  At the end he asked if anyone wanted the little white mouse and I said I would take it.  It lived in a wooden shoe for the longest time and I cared for it until it died a natural death.

Later, in college, we were required to pith a mouse to study its circulation system.  I would not do it.  I told the professor I would take an F for the class if I had to but she allowed me to do an alternative assignment.  Luckily, now there are computer simulations I guess that allow students to study such things with out having to kill the mouse.  So, you see, I’ve always been a big softy.  It is who I am.