Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Rampant Cannibalism

My two older girls came upstairs with the shrieking heebeegeebies--a mouse was devouring the carcass of another mouse in our window well! "Eww, eww! "
From their description I gathered they thought a new breed of vicious flesh-eating rodent had moved into the neighborhood. I pointed out that the poor trapped thing was simply out of other options. So they decided to rescue it.

With a long-handled butterfly net and a piece of bread on a string, they freed the beastie to roam the fields round our house.


Ani came to tell us about the rescue, and stayed to obsess some more about the revolting behavior of eating your own kind. It reminded me of the story I had read just that morning in the Old Testament--a woman goes to the king to complain about her neighbor. You see, there was a famine in the land and the neighbor lady had proposed a plan: Let's eat your son today and my son tomorrow. So they ate the first son, but the next day the lady who came up with the plan refused to follow through. The king found this pretty upsetting. (But not for the same reasons the woman did.)

My toddler, Rosalie, also seemed bothered by this tale of maternal munching.
I reassured her, "I would never eat you, Rosalie. I would rather starve to death."
Her response was a flat, "I taste yucky."

6 comments:

Clint said...

They actually taste really good. How do we resist? The OT beats all for violence and disturbia.

Clint C. said...

Hey that was me!

kate said...

i'm always afraid i'm going to lose control and really dig in with my teeth when i'm munching on my kids. they just are so delectable! that's a nice mousy picture! and nice of your kids to rescue him from his lack of options.

Star said...

I have never read that story, how disturbing!
Great job to the mouse rescuers, even though he is a nasty little cannibal.

Mom & Dad said...

Amen to OT: R rated for violence and disturbia (good word), but I fear an accurate picture of human (and inhumane) behavior. Good incentive for good year's supply.

Katie said...

lots of rodent posts from the hale sisters - with jack's rat, malan's no rat rule and the mouse cannibalism ---- and i should add OUR rats in the attic stories to make it complete. and good thinking rosalie. i don't think she quite trusts you and wants to throw that info out to help you resist the temptation. jenny told me lots of cute stuff she said while she stayed with her.