Unexpected Statements

Sentence #329 that I never dreamed I would say to one of my children: "No, you cannot keep a maggot as a pet."

I just donned disposable gloves to pitch a dead starling out of our yard. It looked pretty dead, with its gaping beak and dull eyes, but when I picked it up to pitch it over the fence and the creek and into the domain of the coyotes, I saw that its back was a big hole squirming with tiny maggots. If I had taken forensic anthropology, I could have told my kids how long the little bird was dead, but instead I sent it flying (along with a shower of maggots) while emphatically telling my son the above line.