When Tim first told me he wanted to go into taxidermy, I was excited. I thought it was going to be a fun adventure. Ooh boy! I got the adventure part correct.

“Hey, that squirrel looked like it was in pretty good shape.” We had just driven by a dead squirrel lying on the road.

“Uh, it’s dead.” My mind had yet to grasp the full extent of Tim’s new endeavor.

“Yeah, I know.” Tim pulled over to the side of the road and turned on the hazard lights.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m going to check out that squirrel.” Tim used a tone that sounded like he was surprised I had even asked him that question.

“You’re going to what?” I immediately looked around us to see if anybody was watching. “Why?”

“If it’s not too squashed or far gone, I’m going to mount it.” He walked over to it and bent down. Then he looked back at me and gave a thumbs up. I wondered if he was going to pick it up. Instead he came back to the truck and opened the back door.

“Can we go now before somebody sees us?” I whined.

“We’re not going anywhere until I get that squirrel.” He scrounged through the back seat.

“You’re seriously going to pick it up?”

“Yep, I am.” He used a matter of fact tone.

“It’s nasty! Who knows how long it’s been laying on the road and how many germs it has now.”

“That’s why I am using this.” Tim held up a garbage bag. “This should do it.”

He crammed his hand into the bag, walked back over to it, and bent down. I watched him scoop up the squirrel with the bag.

Of course that is when a car drove by us. They looked at Tim and then back at me. Then I had a horrible realization.

Tim came back to the truck and laid the bag in the back floorboard. “It’s a pretty one and it’s still fresh.”

“Did you see how those people in the car were looking at us? I bet they thought you were picking up that roadkill for us to eat.”

“I don’t care what they think.” Tim climbed back into the truck. “When I see a good squirrel on the road, I’m going to get it. And I am putting more garbage bags in the back in case I see another one.”

Apparently this was going to be our new normal and I had better get used to it. But there was one thing I needed to put in the truck, too. A sign that read, “NOT FOR FOOD!”

“Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.” Romans 14:3 (KJV)