Reason

This morning when Sean took his 2 dogs outside to pee they ran over to the concrete edging instead of their usual peeing spot on the grass. He went over to see what they were interested in. It was a tiny bird just alive and half hatched out of its egg, which had fallen out of a tree. The mother bird was up in the tree. Sean picked up the little bird and took it inside, not knowing what to do. He thought it would probably die soon. Belinda asked him if he had time to take it to the vet. No, he said, I don't have time to take it to the vet. They left it in the sink, with some water, I think that's what he said. And left for work.

I had a dilemma like that once with poor Gwendolen, or the last of the Bobs, it was so long ago I don't remember now. He, or she, was dying and had been, for over a week, just lying there with an opening and shutting mouth, not otherwise moving. An agonising death for it and for me, the surrogate carer. One day I decided that the kindest thing to do was to end the life of Gwendolen, or Bob. I usually kill living things by stepping on them or whacking them with a newspaper. But how do you kill a fish? I knew they killed lobsters by dropping them in boiling water so...

Placing Gwendolen, or Bob, in a shallow bowl I boiled a kettle and poured the boiling water on to
the gasping victim. My heart raced and I felt like the killer I was. She or he, spasmed and turned instantly white, cooked. It took me some time to get over it.