07 June 2008

An Unfortunate Disturbance

It was effing hot today. Our greens weren't to happy about it so we brought out the shade cloth to kind of ease the pain. For convenience we keep the cloth balled up in the lower shed. I carried the wadded mass into the garden and when I unfurled it I saw a large mouse fall to the ground and scurry through the fence.

As I started cursing out the little bastard for chewing a hole in the sheet, I heard a little squeak that instantly made me feel remorse. I knew what it was and a short scan of the ground revealed what I feared. The little bastard that ate a hole in our sheet was nesting with a pair of her own little bastards.

When I showed the tots to Meg, she asked if I was going to kill them. I answered no, even though I knew I already had. I set them down where I saw their mother retreat (hopeful), but when I checked back a few hours later they were still there, just kind of squirming a bit.

I don't know why I felt sad, they really are bastards. I think perhaps it's because they never had the chance to live and really piss me off. Oh well. Little bastards.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I lose sleep over little things like mice if I think they're suffering. For my own peace of mind...

...I stomp on them. Over instantly.

Little bastards are in my seedling house again.

Anonymous said...

I don't lose sleep at all at outing a few mice and vole nests. Have your chickens ever found some? I nearly gagged when our first hens unearthed a mouse nest. (you can imagine the rest)

Anonymous said...

The sadness may be because they are mammals like us. Survival of the biggest thought eh? Would you feel the same if they were baby slugs you found! :)

Unknown said...

You can still feel sadness...they are aweful cute but just like kittens, they'll be full grown bastards in just a few weeks.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

You said: "I don't know why I felt sad, they really are bastards. I think perhaps it's because they never had the chance to live and really piss me off."

Now that is the truth! You said it sister!

We just had a huge mouse infestation in our garage. They chewed a hole through a wall and had overun our space so badly that we were almsot tripping over the bastards!

Hubby went to the store and came back with poison and traps. He couldn't understand why I will not use poison. He just wanted them dead.....not worried if the damn mice die in the walls, or if one of our pets kids, or livestock ingests the poison, too.

Anyway, I set up 4 traps with cheese and peanut butter and within THREE days I caught TWELVE mice! Wahoooo!
I bet you know how satisfying it was to find the dead mice in the traps, too.
I kept finding myself peeking into the garage preparing to harvest another dead bastard.

Call me the Grim Reaper w/ a huge smile on my face as I hold a dangling dead mouse by the tail.

And I even shared a few with my chickens, who seemed to prefer the baby mice alot more than the older ones.

I'm almost a little disappointed now that our mouse problem seems to be over in the garage. hahah!

Diggers Darling said...

Yeah, I've been having problems with the squirrel and rabbit populations at my house in Escondido, CA. I have taken out 3 of the little bastard squirrels and a rabbit (all babies) in a matter of 3 weeks. I wouldn't feel bad about it, as little bastards grow up to be bigger bastards.