Several days ago, when I went, they were nowhere to be found. I returned several times more, but nothing.Today on the way back from food shopping, the kids were sleeping in the car, so we (my husband and I) stopped by to see. It was deathly silent.
I went off through some tall weeds and brush to see if they were near. Todd went to the three skeleton houses to investigate.
Sadly, he found the answer in the weeds between and behind the houses.
Five little carcasses. Near where they lived, and where we had been feeding them. No obvious wounds, so we suspect they were poisoned. They went too quickly for it to be natural causes (disease, etc.)
One can only imagine the pain they suffered in the end. The common poison here is rat poison, that takes some time to work, and is very painful.
Who did it? Who knows? Maybe the neighbors got tired of hearing their hungry yapping at night when they wanted to sleep. Maybe the property owner got tired of trespassers (us) going to feed them. Maybe kids who thought it would be "fun" to kill some innocent creatures. The only crime these guys committed was being born "unwanted" by anyone specifically. Surely, they didn't deserve such an end.
We found five little bodies. Perhaps the other two got away, were taken away by their mother and father. More likely, their little bodies are hidden from view somewhere, crawled off in the throws of their agonizing death to somewhere we wouldn't find them.
The other day, I told Todd that I sensed the darkness welling up around me. We were making some progress against the terrible conditions for a handful of animals here. The light was winning, and the darkness was raising to fight back. Today, we found some of the result of that struggle between good and evil. These little souls paid the price.
And we are left heartbroken in a cold Italian drizzle.
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