Rest in Peace

I'm sad.  And a little bit anxious.

At first I was just surprised and a little repulsed.  

It was the smell that got my attention.  

Today is garbage collection day on our street -- a day later than usual (like this blog entry) because of the Labour Day holiday on Monday.  I was on my way to the back yard shed to get the can of yard waste from last week's weeding.  And as I got near the shed, I smelt it.  

The awful reek of rotting flesh.  The smell made me look down.  And that's when I saw it.

The rotting remains of a partly eaten grey squirrel carcass.  Lying in the grass two feet from the back shed door.

I've no idea what got it.  My guess is a neighbourhood cat.  But who knows, maybe somebody's been trying to get rid of rodents and it found some poison laid down somewhere.  Maybe it died a natural death, but I kind of doubt that.  

I thought about scooping up the carcass and including it in the trash.  But I didn't have gloves handy.  Japhia was waiting in the car.  We had to leave to drive the grand-kids to school.

I left it there.

And now I am sad.  And anxious.  I wonder if it's one of the pair of squirrel friends I have enjoyed watching all summer, and wrote about last week.

I am going to have to keep an extra close and caring eye on their usual meeting place.  See if only one shows up.  Or the two.  

Or none.

And now that I'm home from the errand with the grand-kids, there's still time.  And gloves in the back shed.  The garbage has not yet been collected.

I am going to go back, and take care of the remains of that grey squirrel.  

Amazing the different ways our hearts get opened.  How the muscles of compassion get stretched and flexed.  How we learn to be more human, more alive in the image of the Creator.