Gloomy Day
The thunderstorms held off until this afternoon, so there was no repeat of the 5 inches of rain we got yesterday, but we had dense fog this morning, followed by solid overcast. I pity those kids on their spring break.
About the only story I saw of any interest was out of Georgia and reported by the BBC: Woman wounded in US armadillo shooting
Authorities in the US state of Georgia say a woman was accidentally shot by her son-in-law as he was trying to kill an armadillo with a handgun.
Police say the bullet ricocheted off the animal’s hard armour, entered the woman’s mobile home, and hit her in the back as she sat in a reclining chair.
The 74-year-old woman was taken to the hospital where she is expected to recover, local police told US media.
The response from the local police – he should have used a shotgun for armadillo and other varmints.
I don’t understand doing anything about the animal, as they eat termites and ants. The borrows can be annoying, but their food preference is a definite plus.
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JJ said out the shooter was the son-in-law of the victim. She also pointed out the Mother-in-law will now be able to remind him every day about who shot her in the back.
There is justice beyond the courts.
Oh, yeah, that boy just made his life hell, whether he knew it or not 😉
Ah yes, the Texas state pavement :).
Back when I lived on a farm I watched one of my cats, a ferocious hunter that was always leaving me gifts on my doorstep, stalk an armadillo. I just scratched my head at that, because if he pounced on the armadillo, then what? Apparently he realized the same thing, because after a while he broke off his stalk and went off to look for less armored prey.
The problem with armadillos and roads is that only one species reacts to a threat by rolling into a ball. The rest jump up in the air when they feel threatened. This means that those who would just be passed over jump into the underside of the vehicle or up to radiator height if they react to a horn just before the vehicle gets there.
It would have been very frustrating for a cat who attacked one. The armadillo would just ignore it. Still, it would be batter than attacking a skunk or porcupine.
Ah yeah, I noticed him stalking a skunk once too. It took a lot of yelling and screaming on my part to dissuade him. Last thing I needed was a cat sprayed with skunk! Giving a cat a bath in the skunk spray neutralizer de jeur is what I would term a life-threatening event!
This was the same cat who dropped a baby water moccasin in the mud room at my mother’s house. I ended up doing the laundry for her for the next month after that because we never did find that blasted snake, not even when we moved the machines out of the laundry room to move her to her current house!
I had to sacrifice a Levi jacket when I had to bathe my first cat for a flea allergy until the first one-spot flea treatment came out. Soaking a cat in tomato juice and then washing that off would at least result in significant blood loss.
I remember you mentioning the water moccasin incident before. Not something I would want to explain to my Mom.
Ah, I was looking for this, and found it. But not the hilarious video they recorded for it at the same time, alas. I guess it might be lost in the mists of time. SIGH.
There was another song in the same era, “Rock Me Edwin Edwards”, where a couple of DJ’s in Lafayette, Louisiana, wrote new lyrics for “Rock Me Amadeus”. It was sort of an unofficial campaign song, sort of like the bumper stickers “Vote for the Crook, It’s Important” were sort of an unofficial campaign bumper sticker (the first time a David Duke supporter egged my car and I went back to Edwards campaign HQ to get more stickers to replace the vandalized ones, one of the campaign workers sort of snuck me one sub rosa stuck between the “official” bumper stickers, heh).
They had a member of the band in the comment thread on that video and he said he had heard of the video that you remember, but the band didn’t do it. He said the band only attempted one actual video with an LSU film student for a different song, but it was never released because of terrible editing problems. A fan probably created the video you remember, so it probably is lost in the mists of time.
Louisiana politics was fun when Edwin was involved, and in the toilet since he was finally convicted by the Feds.
Regarding the water moccasin incident, this cat had learned how to scratch at the back door and meow in order to be let in. He was a very smart cat as well as a great hunter. So he did that, my mom let him in, and … well. She’s a big woman, my mom. I didn’t know she could move that fast, all the while screeching “Your cat just dropped a snake in the house!”.
Did you hear your middle name? I would have definitely heard my middle name on that one 😉
We brought home a pygmy rattlesnake, but we put it in a tank outside. The problem was the little sucker kept coming up with escape plans. My Mother didn’t really say much, but she wasn’t happy about it.
Yes, I heard my middle name :). I most *decidedly* heard my middle name. Heck, half the *neighborhood* heard my middle name!
I wasn’t fond of snakes and didn’t bring any home. I wasn’t particularly scared of them, but I had the attitude, “if you don’t bother me, I won’t bother you” towards snakes. If they did bother me, well, the hoe or shovel would take care of that!
Being useful doesn’t make them friends. They were interesting to watch, but at a discrete distance. A forked stick was usually enough if they got curious. On rare occasions we would get a 6-foot diamondback, and it was time for the Buick. The big ones would stretch out to sun on the road.
There was a giant blacksnake who lived under my barn. My ferocious hunter kitty only brought me voles, no mice or rats. I appreciated that blacksnake considerably for that mercy. We gave each other the respect and distance each deserved, and went about our business.
The same people who complain about feral cats are the ones who eliminated the snakes that used to control rodents. If you don’t have snakes or cats you will have rats and mice, it’s really simple.
And sometimes the cats don’t even need to do anything :).
When I removed the old dishwasher in my place because it had died (it must have been 20 years old, the wonder was that it had lasted as long as it did), I found a bunch of mouse droppings underneath it. I have never — ever — seen a mouse in this place as long as I’ve lived here, other than the catnip variety. Apparently simply having cats wandering around the place was enough to convince the mice to decamp :).
Most mice would recognize the smell of cats as being bad news. Pet food is an obvious target for rodents and bugs, but it doesn’t take long for rodents to figure out that it is a bad idea. There are a lot of easier targets, so the rodents move along.