Traps and Tricks

So, the old cat died a while back.

For all of her faults, the old girl did one thing, performed one service we kind of miss these days.

She provided guilt-free pest control. No voles could survive in her radius, and her mere presence was a deterrent.

Now that she's gone, the duty has fallen upon me- because neither my sister nor my mother have the stomach for it.

And thus it is I who bait traps with tasty treats for the little creatures. It is I who place them in locations of value. And it is I who haul the little corpses outside and dump them for the shrews and carrion birds.

It's funny.

My sister flat-out refuses to bait traps. She claims it's too "serial killer" for her.

I can try to explain that there's no malice in my heart when I set these traps. I sincerely wish these rather dim-witted little creatures would simply stay away from the trash can and the flour and the rice on their own... But wishing doesn't feed me.

But I doubt she'll ever grasp that.

This wouldn't bother me, except that she wants them gone more than anyone.

After all, I'll be gone in August. I can only hope she figures out that what we need to do often has no emotion connected with it at all.