This is not a nice story, but the lesson was learned.
In my sixteenth year, my granny was in the hospital for two weeks and at one of her children's place for three weeks recovering.
That left me to take care of my blind great grandfather. As he had heart problems, I could not leave the yard. Talk about stir crazy and cabin fever. I was nuts.
Every evening a pair of doves would alight on the telephone wire by our house to bill and coo. I grew to hate them for their freedom and their affection.
One of my friend's family was going on vacation to Old Mexico and invited me to go. But of course I couldn't, as there was no one else to take care of Poppa.
Enraged at my being tied down, I shot one of the doves and my hell really began.
As it turns out, doves, wolves, geese and whales mate for life and every evening that poor lonesome critter returned to where it's mate had fallen. Only this time, it cried from loneliness and a broken heart and with every cry, I felt lower than a wart on a snake's belly.
Every time I stepped off the porch, it would fly away, only to return the next evening.
I prayed to God for forgiveness and to let me put that poor critter out of both it's and my misery.
Leaving Poppa alone, I went to ground in the heat of the afternoon, in a comoflage of limbs and tall grass. I waited though the heat of the day and God took mercy on us both, and it was done.
Since that time, I've not killed anything that I wasn't going to eat or that wasn't going to bite me.
The lesson was learned
In my sixteenth year, my granny was in the hospital for two weeks and at one of her children's place for three weeks recovering.
That left me to take care of my blind great grandfather. As he had heart problems, I could not leave the yard. Talk about stir crazy and cabin fever. I was nuts.
Every evening a pair of doves would alight on the telephone wire by our house to bill and coo. I grew to hate them for their freedom and their affection.
One of my friend's family was going on vacation to Old Mexico and invited me to go. But of course I couldn't, as there was no one else to take care of Poppa.
Enraged at my being tied down, I shot one of the doves and my hell really began.
As it turns out, doves, wolves, geese and whales mate for life and every evening that poor lonesome critter returned to where it's mate had fallen. Only this time, it cried from loneliness and a broken heart and with every cry, I felt lower than a wart on a snake's belly.
Every time I stepped off the porch, it would fly away, only to return the next evening.
I prayed to God for forgiveness and to let me put that poor critter out of both it's and my misery.
Leaving Poppa alone, I went to ground in the heat of the afternoon, in a comoflage of limbs and tall grass. I waited though the heat of the day and God took mercy on us both, and it was done.
Since that time, I've not killed anything that I wasn't going to eat or that wasn't going to bite me.
The lesson was learned
