Darkness on the edge of town
2003-08-10

A bit low today, tired, just tired I guess. Lots of seven day weeks will do that to you.

We went down to the boat after dinner to ice the cooler, I might be sailing today and the launch driver points out a dead cormorant in the rigging of the boat in front of us. Let me tell you about my feelings on cormorants, they are rats of the sea. All they ever do is eat and crap on boats. They are filthy disgusting birds. I felt bad for the boat owner. His boat was covered in crap and now he had a dead bird to try and remove too. Not good.

Then it all sort of changed. He wasn't dead. He lifted his head and tried to get away, but he couldn't. That changed everything. I can't stand to see things (and people suffer). It literally broke my heart to see him struggle.

The boat is usually my haven, my chance to get away, but I just couldn't stay there and watch him die. I tried to find a way to get him down, but there just wasn't a practical way. No extra halyards for a chair, way too high for a pole. No permission anyway to board someone elses boat.

I couldn't stay. I couldn't watch, but I couldn't not watch. I called the launch and we circled around, there had to be a way right? Wrong... It was apparent one wing was broken, and that he wasn't trapped, he was hanging on for dear life and that life was ebbing away slowly, painfully. There was no chance, no hope.

We got in and called the owner of the boat up. I would have called animal rescue too, but at 8:30 at night on a Saturday, well...

And today is another day. Sigh...

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