When kindness backfires--Whether you've caught spiders in the house to release them...

[Baitball Blogger]

or larger animals, you'll sympathize with the following:

[hedgehog]

1. I had that happen with a chipmunk -

it was running around on our enclosed porch, and finally ended up in one of my boots. i picked up the boot and was headed to the edge of the woods and was walking by where we had the dog tied out. The chipmunk hopped out of the boot and the dog snatched it up and swallowed!

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Reflexes are a terrible thing in animals, sometimes.

I have a teacher friend who always does the chrysalis to butterfly experiment in the classroom. When the butterfly emerges it's always a big thing to take it out and watch it fly away. Well, when you're in a classroom setting sometimes you can't wait until the wings dry out so one year she took one out too early and they watched it flutter a few feet away and crash land. While they were still watching, a bird came and took it. My friend quickly turned to her kindergarteners and said, "Oh, look the bird is taking it for a ride!"

[Arugula Latte]

3. In its beak! How sweet!

[Dash87]

5. Omg

That's so sad and hilarious at the same time.

[Dash87]

4. I let a baby squirrel go, but a cat was waiting right there.

Free meal.

[Brigid]

6. I saw a video clip on TV recently. . .

Of a small group out deep fishing. One young man caught a baby lemon shark. Since they weren't fishing for sharks, the usual procedure would have been to simply cut the line, leaving the hook in the shark's nose. The young man didn't want to leave the baby shark going around with a hook in its nose for the rest of its of its life, so he pulled the shark aboard to try to remove the hook. The shark, of course, cut the man's hand to ribbons.

[Duer 157099]

7. Well from the hawk's perspective

he did a great kindness, delivering a fresh meal.

And honestly, if I were a mouse, I'd rather die giving a meal to another animal then scared and lonely in a trash bin.

[RebelOne]

8. I love animals, but there are limits when they invade my house.

I kill all bugs, mice and rats. I had rats last year that came into my house because there was a field being cleared behind me. They chewed electric wires and cost me a fortune for an electrician to repair the damage. I hired a professional pest control guy and he killed 18 rats within 2 months.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Don't blame you with that one.

I would rather see it go to a hawk, than have them poisoned. But, in the end, the point is to keep their numbers down.

[Thirties Child]

10. It can be heartbreaking

I suggested to my 8-year-old granddaughter that the caterpiller would be happier outside. She turned to take it out, dropped it just as the dog walked into the room and stepped on it. The look on her face was heartbreaking. We held a funeral under the sweetgum tree, even marked the grave with a brick. RIP, Pubert.

[Iggo]

11. When I release a spider to the outdoors...

...I know there's a good chance it's crowfood or lizardfood or whatever.

But he's got about the same chance as he had before he got inside my house.

[jrandom421]

12. Ferengi Rule of Aquisition 285

"No good deed ever goes unpunished."

[Baitball Blogger]

13. Did that come from Star TreK?

[jrandom421]

14. Of course

It may have appeared in other venues, but the Ferengis were the first to codify it as one of the Rules of Aquisition.

[Trascoli]

15. I found a stinkbug in my bathroom

It's freezing outside, so instead of killing him or kicking him out the door I set him up on a live plant in my house. He's been there for 3 days, I'll let you know when it backfires on me.