Thursday, November 8, 2018

Have Mercy

This morning, as I was rushing in the dark to put on my shoes by the door, I felt something crumple underneath my foot. Kind of like a piece of paper. I looked down at the floor, but I could not see anything. Nothing under foot either, so I chalked it up to maybe my imagination.

When I returned home hours later, ready to hit the showers after a long, chaotic day, the setting sun was shining through the living room window. And behold, there on the floor, in the light, was a small black grasshopper. It's legs had been sheared off, I realized in horror, when I stepped on it accidentally this morning. That's what I felt this morning, and the poor thing was still alive!

So I did best (and worst) thing that I could think of. I got the bug spray and killed it. It squirmed for two seconds before it died. It was a tough sight to see, the poor thing. But I considered it a mercy killing.


The poor little maimed creature was probably suffering for hours while I was out. I hope it's in grasshopper heaven now.



13 comments:

  1. Oh, the poor little bug.

    You did the best thing under the circumstances.

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    1. LX, Thanks. I'm not sure how it got indoors, probably followed me in when I opened the door at some point. I felt bad watching it die, but I couldn't let it live in agony any longer.

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  2. Squishing would've been quicker. Poor thing, suffering all day and then being slowly poisoned or asphyxiated!

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    1. Deedles, I couldn't bring myself to squish the poor thing again. It'd be like hitting someone with a car, then deliberately backing up over them to end their pain!

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    2. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one, Eros, but I love your kindness to all things great and small. Squishing you with big hugs right now.

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    3. I'd've gone for the squishing option, too - and just felt horrible about it for hours afterwards.
      I once dried myself after a bath with a massive spider. It was on my towel and I didn't notice until I felt something crumple and crunch against my back as I dried off. It fell to the floor, still twitching, and I somehow managed to bring myself to squash it quickly, relieving its suffering :(

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    4. IDV, That's freaky, drying off with a spider in your towel. I'm wary of spiders, ever since I got bitten by a brown recluse and I've almost walked into webs of black widows in the woods of Georgia. I think I would've screamed upon a seeing that spider on the floor--a manly scream, of course. Then I would've found something else to crush it. Then take another long shower.

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  3. One does feel sorry for it. Even though I not a huge grasshopper fan. I don't dislike them, but I don't want one on me either. This summer when I was watching my car, and then vacuuming it, on a cement slab I saw a grasshopper being attacked by a praying mantis. By time I was done, the mantis had all but consumed most of the hopper. It was very creepy.

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    1. Maddie, It is pretty creepy watching one critter eat another. Every time I watch a nature documentary, I always hope the baby deer escapes from the wolf, or the penguin escapes the sea lion, even though I know that the wolf or sea lion is doing what it has to in order to survive. That's nature. Animals don't have grocery stores. Still hard to watch a living critter die.

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  4. "Nature, red in tooth and claw."

    Presumably whatever beast had bitten off the grasshopper's legs and planned to return and finish its feast has now been deprived of a meal. And so it goes, on and on... Jx

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    1. Jon, The thought of such a beast on my home is disturbing! An intruder in my home! I hope it gets the message it is not welcomed and it needs to leave!

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  5. I've done this too, with a grasshopper. I felt awful for days afterwards.
    Sx

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    1. Scarlet, Right? It feels terrible when you realize that you've accidentally trampled over some small critter. I've ran over quite a few jackrabbits when I was driving at night at Big Bend National Park. I was driving slow, too, but still, those jackrabbits jumped out in front of me just a few feet in front of my headlights and there'd be a sickening crunch and bump a second later. The coyotes and vultures ate good those few days.

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