To the Editor:
We heard a noise in the middle of the night but did not figure out where it was coming from. The next morning my wife, Mary, spotted out of our second-story window a mother raccoon with two little babies huddled in a corner of our house and roof, out of the cold and wind to protect with her life her children.
She had tried to make her way into our home by tearing off siding but could not get through all the way and made a nest from the debris. When we saw her, she held her body over her babies trying to keep them warm and kept pulling them into her when they would move. When the mother saw us looking out the window she took one baby in her mouth down a tree next to our home to a hiding place in our yard and then shortly returned and got the second baby.
Many of our friends would say we should have killed her as she will probably come back. Well my friends, I could not. All I could think about was this mother, willing to die to protect her children, and how we as humans justify murdering our children to control the size or gender of our family. Shame on us so-called Christians. I think Christ must cry often.
Gene Boyd
St. Paul the Apostle Parish
Davenport