Buy Nothing

Imagine him without eyes, but just as intense.

I spent the holiday caring for "poultry" at Forever Wild Animal Rehab Center. I learned how to quickly dispatch a mouse for Boondock, a blind burrowing owl kept as a potential foster parent. (He literally has no eyes; the owl on the left is a burrowing owl I found online.) The first time around, I'd tried to just grab the mouse by the tail and whack his head against the wall like I'd seen other volunteers do, but this mouse was tough. He didn't want to die. The outer sheath of his tail came off in my hand, and he started running around the avian center bleeding. God, I felt like an asshole. Darleen showed me how to crush his neck quickly with a pair of forceps.

The moment I'm choosing a mouse out of the cage, though, is the worst. They're all happy in there with their wheel and their mouse chow. I pick whichever one sticks its tail in the air in such a way that I can grab it easily. . .  I just feel like an undeserving arbiter of the fate of this little soul.

I also distributed a lot of chopped collard greens and tomatoes to a lot of ducks and geese. God, how they love tomatoes. Tomatoes, cantelope rinds, and sunflower seeds. That's what these guys like.

I'm just thankful I've got someone to feed this year.