» Accidental animal cruelty

Suzie the Sausage Dog
When I was a kid my cousin had a dachshund named Suzie. She was getting pretty old, was almost blind, had no teeth, and no fur to speak of; just leathery black skin.

Unbeknownst to us kids, my uncle decided to put her down. This being rural Australia, that basically meant that he and a couple of his mates took the dog out into the bush and shot her. Later on the news was broken to us that Suzie had been very sick and so they'd put her out of her misery and now she was in doggy heaven.

Fast forward to about a year later... out of the bush wanders a strange yet familiar leathery-skinned creature. It's Suzie, still alive but missing part of her lower lip and jaw (blown away by the shot gun!). My uncle's attempts at putting her "out of her misery" had been so ineffectual that she'd not only survived the shooting, but had been living in the bush for over a year.

It was pretty freaky for us kids having this pet come back from the dead; (a kind of Stephen King "Pet Sematary" moment). My cousin was so happy and Suzie was so excited to see him again. My aunty then loaded Suzie into the car and took her to the vet to be put down.
(Mon 10th Dec 2007, 0:22, More)

» Accidental animal cruelty

What is it with my family and animals?
I don't know what it is about my family, but animals never seem to have much luck. They're always meeting gruesome ends.

After writing about "Suzie the Sausage Dog" I remembered quite a few other incidents:

1. The kittens that another of my cousins decided to give a bath... in a washing machine... in boiling water. Result: kitten soup!

2. A friend of my nana's was visiting and brought her mentally retarded (or whatever PC term you like) granddaughter with her. At the time our cat had a new litter of kittens. Result: four dead kittens bludgeoned over the head with a hunk of wood.

3. Two parrots with clipped wings left outside in the branch of a tree as a special treat for them. One RAN under the car wheel as we were pulling out of the driveway. The other just RAN away and was never seen again.

4. My guinea pig, Ralf, accidentally had his hutch moved on top of him. He was later found squashed with a little bit of grass still sticking out of his mouth.

5. Two dogs bitten by snakes.

6. Even wildlife wasn't safe! There was the lizard I caught and decided to put into the "space program". I put him in a jar with a bit of string attached, spinning it round and round like a centrifuge. Then the string snapped and the jar flew up onto the roof. Several weeks later the wind blew a jar off the roof. No sign of the lizard... just ooze in the bottom of the jar.

7. My grandmother never had any time for reptiles. I remember as a kid going inside and saying "Nana, there's a blue-tongue lizard in the garden". (A fairly big, mean-looking lizard, but harmless). She went out into the garden with a jug of boiling water and threw on it. As the poor creature writhed in pain she commented, "That'll turn his scales up".

Jeez, if reincarnation is true, I hope to God I don't come back as the pet of one of my family.
(Mon 10th Dec 2007, 22:35, More)