The Ending by Susan L.

  The Lord set before me a rather unpleasant task. The sick racoon. I had posted on the twenty-third that he had died, he hadn't but was merely sleeping. It was mostly wishful thinking on my part. I just wanted this problem to go away. It didn't. I also felt it wasn't a topic to share over Christmas.
  I decided that night keeping him comfortable was only prolonging his death. I took it over to the conservation area across the street and let it go figuring he'd wander into the woods. The night was frigid so I prayed it would speed up the inevitable, that hypothermia would aid his passing. It didn't. The next morning revealed he had returned to my back yard, still alive but in the throes of the illness, Canine Distemper. I prayed he would die soon. It's an ugly illness.
  When I got home from work, he was still living but hadn't moved from the spot I'd found him in that morning. Enough was enough although I was sorry I didn't own a gun. A two-by-four was the best weapon at hand to dispatch the poor fellow. It's only by the grace and strength of God I was able to put the raccoon out of his misery.
  Again, thanks, Farm, for the hard lessons learned: that I know how to kill in one of the quickest, kindest ways.
  As gruesome a job as it was, a weight lifted off my shoulders in watching him breathe his last. No more suffering for the little fellow. I had struggled terribly with keeping him in the box and letting nature take its course which is why he'd been let go. That course of action was cruel, plain and simple.
  I was annoyed at our local Humane Society, that they didn't have a volunteer with a gun to come and take care of these creatures. Leaving them to die from such a terrible sickness is far from humane. Having a no euthanasia policy is incredibly cruel in circumstances where there is no treatment, no hope of recovery. As they told me, body disposal in these cases is a ditch at the side of the road.
  I know they import small animals from Quebec like hamsters and guinea pigs because Quebec has a euthanasia policy. I have no idea what retrieving these animals costs but it's sad that there isn't the money necessary to help end the suffering of the local racoons who have contracted this vicious disease. In a period of three days they had received numerous calls about them.
  How much does a bullet cost?
  But then, the Lord knew where to send the little racoon. I just pray He doesn't send any more. This was not a task I'd care to do again.
  "Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it." Gen 2:15