Vegetarian Killer of Animals

Obviously, I did not grow up on a farm.

Unnamed house mouse on his daily expedition outside.

My husband just came into my study to let me know one of our cats had caught one of our goldfish. A big one. The fish, not the cat. And now it was pathetically flapping around in the hallway. Again the fish, not the cat. I am not sure why he didn’t just deal with it and then tell me. But he didn’t. I picked up the flapping fish and saw that despite looking in pretty good shape on one side, it had been completely gutted on the other. Poor thing. So I put it out in the front yard where all the birds gather, maybe they might like a fresh goldfish? I saw one of the magpies catch a mouse a while back.

Out cats are not allowed out of our fully enclosed backyard for the sake of the native wildlife but I have had to kill three mice recently. The cats, bring their prey inside, to show them off and to play with. Tiny cute little mice with their dark eyes and quivering little bodies. I catch them to stop their torment at the paws of my beloved pets. Efficient hunters though they are they do not seem inclined to kill their prey. The mice feel so small in my hands and not knowing how damaged they are. And knowing that even if they are physically okay, as a pest, they shouldn’t be released to breed and infest the house or attract snakes to the chicken shed. So I kill them. I tried drowning them at first because I had…