[Christ]

Originally Posted by elhigh

I didn't read your entire post but I will.

We ARE all aware this is off topic now, right?

My wife ran over a 'possum that had already been hit but was suffering, she hit it to end his suffering. Then she came back and told me what she'd done, told me to get a shovel and bury the poor thing.

Went to get the shovel.

Went out to the road. Huh. No 'possum.

scritch
scratch
gasp
scritch

Looking around I found the poor little fellow dragging his sorry self in the ditch. He was in a very bad way, but still moving. I brought my automatic from the house, aimed carefully and shot him in the head. *blam*

scritch
gasp

Somewhat rattled I shot him again. *blam*

scratch

I got much closer than I wanted to, aimed at what remained of his head, surely it's just the body winding down, this is just for the sake of being thorough, please? *blam*

sigh

And all was still.

Jesus. I slid the gun into my pocket, a very conveniently small .25 Browning auto, not very accurate but a reliable little weapon that is, at the end of the day, still a gun.

I picked the shovel back up.

A police cruiser came rolling by. I tried very hard not to look guilty, and maybe the cops sorta understood things when they saw me lift up a dead 'possum on the end of my shovel. Whatever the case, they kept going.

TL;DR: it's a crime except when it isn't. The animal was hurt, my wife tried to finish it off (and our crappy little Hyundai wasn't up to the job), turns out 'possums die hard.

It's unfortunate, but I hit a neighbor's dog just over the NY border [inside NY state], and due to the laws there, couldn't do /anything/ to help the poor animal's transition... had I shot it, I risked being charged with a plethora of gun 'crimes'. I did what the average person would do, and left, the poor thing still writhing in the road in pain at 0200 on the weekend.

Wish I'd had any clue who was responsible for the dog...