Category: Animals

I went to grab some lunch at a nearby restaurant mid afternoon on Monday.  I unfortunately selected a table next to a woman who was telling her companion (at the top of her lungs) how she wanted that mother charged with criminal neglect and arrested.  She went on and on until I wrapped up the back-turkey bravo I was trying to eat and just took it home.  Obviously the woman had never had children.

Kids are fast.  Three year olds are faster than most kids and can give you the slip in a New York second.  Furthermore, we weren’t there.  What we do know is that gorillas are wild animals and they are unpredictable.  That gorilla could have turned on that kid and in an instant, killed him deader than a doornail.

Read More

It appears that Uncle Sam the eagle wants nothing to do with Donald Trump. Perhaps Uncle Sam is telling us all something.
Nuff said!!!

I think the eagle just became my bird of the week.

msn.com:

Zimbabwean hunter Theo Bronkhorst leaves court in Hwange, October 15, 2015. Bronkhorst is facing charges for breaching hunting rules which led to the killing of the country’s most famous lion, Cecil, by US Dentist Walter Palmer…A Zimbabwean hunter accused of failing to stop the killing of Cecil the lion said on Thursday his family and business had been destroyed amid the outcry that followed the lion’s death and that charges against him should be dropped.
Read More

                                 

Animal control in PWC is almost non-existent if you aren’t a dog.  If  a raccoon or skunk moves in and decides to live under your porch or in your shed, you are on your own.  If a rattlesnake takes over your patio, you had better hope you can outrun it or knock it in the head with a big stick.  You had better not shoot it, that would be illegal in some parts of the county.

Mosquito control is really sketchy if you live in my neighborhood.   I have been told again and again that the spray truck cannot come on my street because the speed limit is 35 mph.  In the first place, the  speed limit hasn’t been 35 for at least 20 years.  Secondly, if it comes to cars going to Splashdown or me getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, I am going to vote for my own personal comfort first.  They can just follow the mosquito truck that is going 25 mph.

Mosquitoes are horrible in Sudley and Westgate.  It is impossible to go outside in warm weather without spraying up  with Deep Woods OFF.  We live very close to Bull Run, as the crow flies.  News flash, Prince William County:  Rivers and creeks attract and breed mosquitoes–millions of them!

Memorial Day marks the beginning of my annual fight with the country over mosquito control.   Once more I will insist that my street get sprayed.  I expect I will get told no, once again.   Maybe this is an area where my supervisor can help.  Maybe the county will be commanded to spray my street.   I am not counting on it, however.

While they are at it, the County  can start providing animal control services again, especially for wild animals.  During the recession, it was decided that the citizens were on their own.  Animal services other than for dogs was simply not affordable.  I think it’s time to provide some assistance with larger animals that are places they shouldn’t be, especially as the danger of rabies increases.

What services do other localities provide with skeeters and trespassing critters?

Wish me luck!  I will be reporting back.

 

 

Apparently the time-honored tradition of not picking at presidential kids is over.  According to the Washington Post:

The communications director for a Republican member of Congress ignited a firestorm this weekend after she criticized President Obama’s teenage daughters in a Facebook post that touched a nerve even for Americans accustomed to political mudslinging.

“Try showing a little class,” Elizabeth Lauten, communications director for Rep. Stephen Lee Fincher (Tenn.), wrote Friday in a Facebook posting addressed to Sasha, 13, and Malia, 16, chastising them for their comportment during last week’s annual turkey pardoning event at the White House.

“Rise to the occasion. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at the bar,” Lauten wrote. “And certainly don’t make faces during televised, public events.”

Read More

Hamptonroads.com:

With thousands expected in Washington today to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War, scores of Marines – both retired and active duty – gathered Friday to honor an unlikely, little-known hero from the conflict.

In a ceremony where tears were shed and old comrades shook hands for the first time in more than half a century, they dedicated a life-size bronze statue of a horse.

But not just any horse, say many men who served alongside her during a desperate firefight in the last year of the war. This was Reckless – a Korean-born mare that the old leathernecks say was a comrade in arms who saved their lives.

Read More

Oh gross me out!  200 vultures have taken up residence in a Leesburg neighborhood.  Nothing could be uglier or nastier than a vulture.  I am assuming these are what we call “buzzrds.”

Washingtonpost.com:  (Tom Jackman)

Monday was Day One of the effort by Leesburg, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to remove the committee of vultures who have made the Mayfair neighborhood near Edwards Ferry Road their winter home. As always on this job, it was fun and educational — a group of vultures is known as a committee, you know — and from the outset, it seemed to work. Except that the promised, much anticipated “pyrotechnics and lasers” weren’t really needed much.

To recap, the 200 or so vultures need to go because their excrement is extremely acidic and they can destroy both trees and important stuff on houses and cars. They are a protected species, so you can’t shoot them.

What amazes me is that buzzards are a protected species.  Why?  How stupid is that?  Who do we write  to about this?  The vulture is no more endangered than kittens.

The first trick to remove the vultures was to hang an effigy–not a toy vulture but a real dead vulture, upside down from a rope in “their” tree.  Apparently vultures do not like effigies, considering their personal eating habits.

Be sure to read the rest of Tom Jackman’ article to see the outcome.  Meanwhile, why are we protecting vultures?  They are nasty and ugly.  They serve on purpose.  They clean up road kill.  They are too lazy to kill their own food.  Ewwwwwwww!

Keep your fingers crossed that the “committee” doesn’t decide to reside in the fun place to live, work and play.