I couldnt kill an animal to put it out of its misery
Here’s the deal…
I am doing laundry and the dryer really heats up my already hot house so I decided to open the back door up to get some air in here.
After opening the door I notice one of my dogs is out in the backyard “mouthing” something…I figured it was just one of my cats but I went to look anyway because it did seem a bit small.
I grab a flashlight and shoo my dog away and realise it was a possum. I get both dogs in the house,and take a closer look and the thing is passed out cold (still breathing so I knew it wasn’t dead).
I am here getting more and more ticked off because I don’t want my dog to catch any disease from slurping all over this animal, and also because that means I have to shut my house back up to keep dogs in til the damn thing wanders off again. (can take a couple of hours!! I’ve been though this before)
I decide I’m not waiting that long and I grab the water hose to squart it and it gets up and starts walking off. As it walks past me I notice it has a great big red streak down half of it and all the way down one leg. I quit spraying it and looked closer…its left back leg is practly torn off… I nearly threw up seeing that.
That poor animal.
I take a deep breath and spray it again to get it out of my yard, because I’m too spineless to kill it and don’t want my dogs after it again.
God I hope my dog didn’t tear that animal up. I also hope the animal wasn’t carrying any disease my dog might get.
I feel like hell.
Gilly, I couldn’t either. All I oculd do is cry. And maybe try to see if there was an animal control or wildlife rehabilitator willing to help. I have, in the past, called someone I knew to come and kill an animal that was suffering, but could never do it myself. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Thanks Trouble. I did the crying thing. No other options here except doing it myself. I hope my dog doesn’t become a killer, I don’t know what I could do about that if she did.
{{{Gilly}}}} I’m sorry, girl…know that I, too, am spineless and could not have ended that possum’s misery. And I hate those nasty giant rats.
Certainly take your dog to the vet and have her screened for whatever communicable disease she could get from a possum. As far as her become a “killer,” she is a dog–a predator. Although many breeds have had the killing instinct lost or at least confused, it remains. Is she an aggressive dog? You said at first you thought it was your cat. How is she with cats? Does she chase them? Or are they just other dogs to her? Who knows what set her off.
She’s a pretty passive dog in a lot of ways. She does chase my two cats when she is in her “herding” mood but never does anything except get them all slobbery. Now that I think about it I can’t be sure she actually hurt it, my new dog (a stray from the pound, who might have killing tendency-though he doesn’t mess with the cats…)might have been the one. Anyway, I just don’t want to have either of them attacking/killing animals that wander into my yard! (get a lot of possums and skunks) Might seem like I’m over-reacting…but this is not something I want to become a habit.
I think Mr Possum might have already been hurt when he found his way into your yard. Most possums will run away before a dog gets a chance to catch one, unless it’s cornered or injured. He might have been hit by a car or something, and wasn’t able to run away from the dog. Possums only use ‘playing dead’ as a last resort. I’ve seen one have a stand off with my mastiff, hissing and screeching all the while. Besides, you said your dog was ‘mouthing’ it, not trying to tear it limb from limb. He probably found an interesting smelling stranger in the yard, and his little dog brain told him the best thing to do would be to taste it.
Don’t worry about it.
Rose
Listen to Blue, she is setting you straight. I have a dog with high prey drive, believe me - if your dog had any taste at all for blood, you would have seen much more than “mouthing”. Remember, at first glance you thought it might be one of your cats, so the dog could not have been savaging the possum.
Possum are big nasties with long teeth and they are wicked when cornered. Grab your rifle and put a big hole in it if possible. I know it’s gross, but a good possum is a dead possum.
*Aenea, who does not like killing anything either, but who has shot a possum because they are nasty and they come back.
Possums are cute, until they try to bite you, that is.
My cat used to chase and play with wild mice/rats and bring them to me as a peace offering. But one day she didn’t fully finish the job of killing a rat and it was pretty badly hurt. I couldn’t kill it, and I couldn’t leave it out to die a slow, painful death, nor could I give it to my cat to kill because she only wanted to “play” with it, which would hurt it even more. So after looking at it and crying, I put it in a box and gave it to my dad who also can’t kill hurt animals, so we were stuck in a dilemma. What could we do? So we left it for a few hours to see if it would get better or not, and by the morning it was convulsing and bleeding everywhere, so my dad drowned it.
I cried for hours after that. I’m such a big softy. Just the sight of it floating in the water with it’s eyes open…ugh…now I’m verklempt…talk amongst yourselves…
