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08/05/2004: "Natural History"

There was the Luna moth; that was exciting. I spotted it on the transom above the door by the counseling room. I took some pictures of it, which did not give any real indication of its size and delicate beauty, and then I captured it and showed it to a few people. There have been the frogs: every day I have been fishing them out of the wimming pool where I am housesitting. They die in there after a while; I assume the chlorine is toxic to them since otherwise it is a very attractive environment for them. There's some sort of parable in this, how they are irresistably drawn to the very thing which will kill them, how they resist efforts to rescue them, how they try to hide in plain sight from their savior. Also this week the groundhog bit the dust, certainly by accident though some whisper of a killing and a conspiracy; the case of Scabbers, the Mouse That Wouldn't Die, indicates to me that it was an accident. Scabbers got out of a glue trap, in pretty bad shape, and limped around the kitchen, just energetic enough to avoid capture. I put out a snap trap which fed him without snapping; I saw him sitting on top of the trigger. I put out another trap and that got him. Anyway, the prime suspect in the groundhog case was so upset about the death of this little bitty mouse that I'm convinced she would never deliberately kill any creature.