I’m not sure if I’m an idiot or compassionate, but I’m definitely sad. On my way home from work this afternoon, one of the cars in front of me hit a little squirrel. I didn’t know until I came up closer and saw it flailing in the middle of my lane, clearly badly injured. I’m not particularly a fan of squirrels but I love animals and it really broke my heart. It was flopping around, like it was trying desperately to get up. I contemplated the rest of the way home if there was something I could do for it, so it wouldn’t suffer any longer, but I couldn’t imagine running it over to “end it” either.
I’m such a sucker for animals, yet I’m such a hypocrite with living things. Here I am with tears for this little squirrel that I have zero connection with, but when I listen to the news and hear about humans who’ve tragically died; it doesn’t upset me this much. I feel bad for them and their families of course, I’m not cold or heartless. Maybe it’s the fact that I saw the squirrel struggle and there was nothing I could do for it. I mean, I know if it were a person who got run over, I would feel just as affected. And if you’ve followed me for some time now, you also know that I don’t like crying; that somewhere I have some deep seated distain for it. I’m slightly embarrassed that my husband will come home soon and see my puffy eyes because of a simple squirrel.
I’ve seen plenty of road kill in my day. I suppose my sensitivity comes from my Mom. She is very compassionate and loving. Since as long as I can remember, if we ever saw a dead animal, she’d say “God bless you, little animal”, even if it were a big deer. It was something that I consider sweet and kind because they live and hurt like we do. I started saying it myself when I got my license and had/have gotten made fun of many times by fellow passengers. It didn’t bother me because I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I’d feel like an ass if I stopped saying a simple blessing because of peer pressure.
I’m not even a vegetarian. Continue reading