Earlier today I was doing my business in the bathroom. (Newsflash: Louis also has bowel movements. Shocking, I’m sure!) I filled up the bucket as I was sitting on the bowl, for you see we have to flush our toilet with a bucket because the flushing mechanism is kaput. After a while, I noticed a bug floating in the bucket. I turned off the water to give the poor fellow a chance. It had some instinctive swimming reaction but it was not too bright. The water was spinning round in the bucket but the little critter was swimming against the current instead of taking advantage of it. At some point, I pushed it towards the side of the bucket but it swam away from the side rather than try to climb up. I offered a finger, “climb up, little guy”, but it seemed afraid of me. There was a used up toilet paper roll nearby so I used it to fish the little guy out of the bucket, figuring that an inanimate object might not scare it so much. That also took some work since the bug would not just instinctively climb up on the roll. Anyway, I pulled it out of there and put the roll down on the floor. The poor bug just remained attached to the roll for as long as I was looking at it. Maybe it was tired from all the action.
Last I checked, the bug is still hanging into the toilet paper roll… (And I checked several hours later and it is still there! In love with the roll which saved its life?)
I general I don’t want to kill insects but I sometimes do kill them. I accidentally crushed a ant earlier. I’ve just now noticed that its corpse has been picked up by other ants. It is food for them now? I’ve also willfully killed cockroaches. So this story is not about how I’m some sort of great-souled guy sparing the life of little critters. Just an anecdote. That’s all…