VegeTexan: I’ve never minded sharing my living space with other creatures, except for mosquitoes. And no matter how much garlic I eat, it doesn’t seem to prevent those vampiric insects from sucking my blood. Mosquitoes annoy me. I try to repell them to the best of my vegan ability, but I don’t poison them, and I have to admit, I don’t even swat them.

I often excuse them their feast on my fluids by thinking “Hey, I’ve got enough to go around.” Such is the curse of my veganism.

Once my bathroom sink was a travel hub for some ants. I spit around them when I brushed my teeth or moved to the kitchen sink. Killing them by any means, even the seemingly benign method of washing them down the drain was not an option.

I’ve relocated black widow spiders, they are numerous in West Texas. One night a scorpion stung me on the foot as I walked down a dark hallway. I fell to the floor writhing in pain and considered crushing the damned beast for a moment. But I didn’t. Such is the curse of my veganism.

After a couple of minutes the pain had subsided so I captured him and released him outside.

I’ve been ok with sharing my apartment with a few cockroaches, I figured my cats would take care of the problem, and they ususally did. When I saw one or two a night, that was ok. But when I saw five or six in my kitchen for several nights I couldn’t put up with it any more.

And so I committed genocide.