Oh No! I'm Sooo Sorry!...I Said to the Squirrel?

I cringed as I thought to myself, "Oh, no! I'm sooo sorry!" I glanced up ever-so-quickly in my rearview mirror only to have to visually observe the squirrel I had just hit as he lay pitifully in the middle of the road. (he didn't look both ways). My apology was to the squirrel, his mother and all his frolicking playmates.

It is difficult to be a witness to the act of suffering whether it's a human or creatures in the "kingdom of wild" at large. I once saved an ant that was drowning in my kitchen sink. It was his tiny flailing arms that broke my heart. It is the valiant struggle that tugs at the heart strings. I once chased and wounded a fly twice. He continued to persevere and battle for his life. In some strange way, I respected his will to live. Respect for a fly? Compassion kicked in and instead of swatting him for a third time, I took him outside on the "fly-swatter stretcher" to his preferred surroundings in "fly world" with all the other pests who just want a chance to live.

One day I decided to venture into the part of the house I had not set foot in for some time (otherwise known as the formal dining room) to do some cleaning and vacuuming. I began sucking up the spiders who had been "formally dining" there over the curtains. They obviously thought they had finally found a private place to call home for an eternity. As I was sucking them up, I felt a little guilty for ruining their lounging positions.
My mother saved a snail once that was clinging on to the side of the dog's bowl. I hope that it wasn't a slipper-shell snail who spend a long time growing a protective shell. When the shell is in place, it signifies that they have come of age for "fun stuff." The snail rests on a surface (perhaps, a dog bowl?) as he waits breathlessly in anticipation for four or five other snails to pile on top. At long last, the "sn-orgy" begins. My mother who was thinking only that she was saving the snail may have quite possibly interrupted the best night of his entire slow life.

There are laws in some states that are specifically formulated to protect the rights of animals. Many of these laws are archaic and have never been officially taken off of the books. In Barbara Seuling's book, You Can't Eat Peanuts in Church and Other Little-Known Laws, she discovered that:

* Fish-lassoing is outlawed in Knoxville, Tennessee
* Kicking a mule in Arizona is a crime.
* You're not allowed to worry a squirrel in Topeka, Kansas. (Thank goodness, the squirrel I hit didn't have time to worry. Hmmm -- I bet his mother did though -- oh, dear, there comes the guilt again.)
* You can't feed garbage to a milk cow in Massachusetts.
* It's illegal in Baltimore, Maryland to mistreat an oyster.
* In California, you cannot pluck the feathers from a live goose.
* In Goulburn, Australia, it's illegal to cuss in front of a beagle.
* In Alabama, it is illegal for more than eight rabbits to reside on the same block.
* In Texas, dogcatchers are required to be psychoanalyzed by a psychiatrist to determine if they are qualified to chase stray mutts.
* It is illegal to hunt or shoot camels in Arizona.
* It is unlawful to march your goose down the main street in Ohio.

Compassion for our animal kingdom is a good thing. However, ancient Egyptians may have carried it a bit too far. They actually thought that cats were deities. So, whenever one of their cats died, the entire family shaved off their eyebrows as a symbol of mourning.
So as you go about your day, remember not to worry any squirrels and for heaven's sake, don't ruin a snail's romantic life by removing him from a dog's bowl.