Cruel Spring?

Terrier Man wrote a really great post called "Cruel Spring" on his blog. It made me think about a day of hunting I will regret for the rest of my life. His post is about seeing a vixen hit by a car on the side of the road and thinking for the rest of the weekend the poor pups that most definitely starved in their den without the mom to feed them. This story reminds me of a this day many years back in which I was turkey hunting out in Orange County. The farmer who had given me permission to hunt on his land asked me to take any groundhogs and any foxes that I came upon. I had never taken a fox before and to be honest did not even think about it as I was blood thirsty for a turkey. Hunting this farm I saw turkeys every day and in four years I never killed a turkey on this farm. Anyways about year two, I am set up on this power line and I start to call real light and out pops this fox at 40 yards and walks right at me. I pulled up the shotgun when the fox got to 20 yards and dropped it dead in its tracks. I was excited for about two seconds. On the third second a thought popped into my head "are these things even in season?" and on the fourth second I realized I had no idea what the regulations were and I realized that I was not going to eat this fox so why again did I shoot it. I walked up to it and rolled it over and it was a female with milk. I got very queasy with the feeling that I knew I had done something very wrong! I looked for the den but to no avail. To this day I regret that kill and I think about it every spring while out turkey hunting! I now enough to know what I did was wrong and unethical and I made a mistake. The farmer was very happy with the kill but I will remember it with that queasy feeling for the rest of my life. Thank you Terrier Man for a great post!