Never said it was pretty...

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A hound dog puppy screaming for its life because she can’t aim the gun, she takes a shot of whiskey after doing this thing, after it is all messed up. Does it while the kids are home, and let them hear the screams, the shots. Calls the vet to do the rest. Just get rid of those puppies.

He backs up the truck, rigs up the gates and plywood walls , jabs the pitchfork in the sow’s white flesh and pushes her, screaming, toward the ramp. Over and over. Again and again. Cursing, slipping, jabbing, yelling. I just retreat, small in a corner, hands twisted and NO I can't help you please the pig is so big and scary and her sounds--like the puppy and its raining and dark and I cannot see... God help me to remember how to pray.


I was twelve.


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