At my dad’s funeral, when the pastor asked if anyone wanted to share memories of my dad, one by one, people piped up with stories of how he came when called and killed whatever critter was “scaring” them.
I was mortified.
Of all the innumerable good things he did for people, his generosity, his hard work helping them, killing “scary” critters was what they said.
Like his whole life was summed up as an animal assassin.
It was surrealistic.
Never know what is going to stick in people’s heads and then it squirts out at weird times - funerals being a prime time for it.
Hopefully he’s up there with all of those scary critters and having fun with them. Again - it was after the Fall that there was enmity between humans and the serpents. (Present company excepted!) In heaven the lion will lay down with the lamb. And snakes.
My daughter wanted to get a “rescue” tortoise when she was a kid. But in order to do so we had to go 4 times to the local reptile (herpitilogical?) meeting that met once a month to show she was committed. Of course after the first visit she wanted a snake!
I told her that would be cool - but I thought mom was being pretty good about the whole tortoise thing, and lets just be happy with that!
An aside - oh for the good old days when the biggest stress in a parent/child relationship was whether to allow her to have a tortoise or not!
Regarding your father as an “animal assassin” — What were the
“scary critters” he was killing? Is your local pest control company also an ‘animal assassin?’ I see you father as a person who came in response to the pleas of his neighbors to rid them of animal pests that were threatening them and their property. I once killed a raccoon that was killing out barn cats, that kept the mice under control and the raccoon also ate the stored corn, thus it was a “double” pest.
Regarding your father as an “animal assassin” — What were the
“scary critters” he was killing? Is your local pest control company also an ‘animal assassin?’ I see you father as a person who came in response to the pleas of his neighbors to rid them of animal pests that were threatening them and their property. I once killed a raccoon that was killing out barn cats, that kept the mice under control and the raccoon also ate the stored corn, thus it was a “double” pest.