Is that normal?

Yesterday when I was walking the neighborhood, I saw a white cat sitting in a yard being dive-bombed by dragonflies.  It was strange, because there were no dragonflies anywhere else.  Yet, there were about fifty of them torturing that poor cat.

Today, I saw possibly the same white cat leaning into a storm drain across the street from the dragonfly yard.  As I got closer, the cat leaned further and further into the drain and then jumped down into god knows where.  I went to the house of the dragonfly yard and rang the bell to see if the cat belonged to them, but nobody answered.

Do cats do this?  Will it be able to get out?  If it jumps up to get out, I don't see how it would be able to get out without hitting its head and falling back into the storm drain.

WTF?


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In Praise of the Lesser Bilby

According to CNN...

"A team of scientists from Japan, Russia and the United States hopes to clone a mammoth, a symbol of Earth’s ice age that ended 12,000 years ago, according to a report in Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun. The researchers say they hope to produce a baby mammoth within six years."


This is a bad idea.  While Google-ing around...I mean...while researching the wooly mammoth, I found a few lists of other not quite so scary extinct mammals that I would prefer these guys attempt to clone instead of something that is going to probably come back and bite them...and all of us...on our collective asses.

1.  Megaloceros - Huge ass deer/elk.  Seven feet tall at the shoulders, twelve foot antler span.  I know we all have friends who would like to give this guy a shot.  Literally.

2.  Dodo Bird - I've always felt sorry for the dodo bird, because as Wikipedia...I mean...as my research shows, "...its extinction occurred during recorded human history and was directly attributable to human activity."  We owe it to the dodo bird to bring him back since we extincted him.

3.  Great Auk - This one deserves to be brought back because, "The last known auk in Scotland was executed in 1840, after local villagers thought that it was a witch."  Scotland. What the hell?

4.  Lesser Bilby - Just because he's cute...

As a side note, scientists, lets not clone anything in the extinct rodent family.  Bison sized guinea pig?  I'm not cleaning that cage.


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"I Smell Gas"

A friend of mine called me the other day and said, "The weirdest thing happened to me yesterday."  He was right.  Weird barely describes it.

The day before he called me, he noticed the smell of gasoline as he was getting into his car to leave for work.  He didn't give it much thought and drove on to the office.  As he was leaving his car when he got to work, he could still smell gasoline.  He looked under his car and saw gasoline pouring in a steady stream from somewhere under his car.  It's a new car, so he called the car dealership and they told him they would send someone to get the car.  He told them he would drive the car to them.

"You DROVE a car that was leaking gasoline?  That was POURING gasoline?"  I asked.  "You weren't afraid someone would throw a cigarette out of their window and blow you up?!"

"Yeah,"  he said.  "I didn't think about that until later."

"What about the gas in the parking lot?  Did you call somebody to clean it up?  Did you tell anybody?"

Did I mention that we work in the same building?  Which we also share with the FBI?

He said, "I didn't think about that until later, too.  Somebody could have dropped a cigarette ten feet away and blown up the whole parking lot, if not the whole building.  It could have been an international incident!  My family would have been left to prove I wasn't some sort of crazed FBI hating suicide bomber."

"Holy shit!"  I said.

"Then, as I was driving to the dealership, it suddenly occured to me that I was trailing gasoline down 11th Street and somebody with a lit match or dragging a muffler could be in for a big surprise."

"But, you made it, obviously."

"Yeah, I made it.  When I got to the dealership, they told me the leak was coming from ABOVE my fuel tank and that they thought they knew what it was and wanted me to stay to see it myself, because this had happened before and people don't usually believe them when they tell them why their car is leaking gas."

"And...?"

"So, they start taking my car apart.  Did you know the fuel tank is in under the seat in the middle of your back seat?"

"Uh, NO!"

"Uh.  YEAH."

"That doesn't seem safe," I said.

"When they took the seat out, they showed me the fuel line...chewed through."

"What the fuck?"

"A rodent.  Either a mouse or a rat or a squirrel.  Who knows.  A rodent.  They said it happens all the time."

"I never heard of such a thing," I told him.

"Me neither."

"Well,"  I said, "I'm glad you didn't get blown up.  Or blow me up.  Or blow up the FBI."

"Rats.  Squirrels.  Mice.  Crazy."

"Crazy."

Cute Puppy Warning

Something I Stumbled Upon...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Snakes!

Think you could spot a snake in a pile of leaves? Snakes and alligators have become a big problem in parts of southeast Texas since Hurricane Ike.

There's a snake in the first picture. Study it closely before you look at the second picture where the snake is circled.



Here's another word of caution (besides watch out for snakes and gators). Watch out for all those huge broken branches that haven't fallen, yet. Go into your yard and look up. Scary, right?

Now, here's the snake...


Did you see it in the first picture?

Where's the beef?

It's been ages since I've posted a big-ass animal. Here you go. (Click here for the story.)

I Want to Hold Your Hand

You have to watch this to the end to realize these adorable otters are really and truly holding hands as they float about. It's the sweetest 2 minutes you'll spend today.



Thanks for forwarding the video, Baby Sis.

My blogging friend Leslie sent me this next one. Once again, watch it to the end.



Have a sweet week, everybody. :)

Today you get puppies and children

Too much cute for one day? I think not.

MOCKINGBIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right on cue (12:22 a.m.), the damn bird is back. I'm in my den, television on, computer websites making various computer website noises and I can still hear the sunovabitch. Crap.

Mockingbird?

The past four nights at about 1:00 a.m. some damn bird starts singing/screeching/chirping/croacking on a tree branch right outside my second floor bedroom window. I took the video below from inside my bedroom and you can still hear how loud it is even through the double paned window beside my bed.

I am a person who has, literally, slept through a train wreck. The train wrecked right down the street from my townhouse and the collision was so powerful, it actually rocked my bed. I felt the movement, listened for a while, then went right back to sleep. When I left for work the next morning, when I reached Langham Road, I looked over to my left and there were train cars scattered all along the tracks. When Cory and Jamie spend the night here, they're always amazed when I tell them I don't even hear the trains anymore.

This damn bird, however, wakes me and keeps me awake until it decides to stop whatever the fuck it's doing. According to one site I found, this is probably a bachelor mockingbird trying to find a mate. It's actually quite fascinating because it can make so many different sounds. Sometimes it even sounds like a cat or a frog. I went outside a little while ago because I was beginning to think it was a car alarm or something. Not only is it a bird, he wasn't even afraid of me and just kept up the racket.

It's now 1:40 a.m. and he's still going strong. Stupid horny bird.



Edited to add:
This bird did not stop until the sun began to come up at about 6:00 a.m. Bastard.

Eagle in Southeast Texas

An eagle has made a nest here in southeast Texas between Beaumont and Orange. These pictures are amazing. I'll probably drive out there this weekend to check it out myself. This is a very rare occurrence.

The nest is located on the left side of Highway 105 going towards Vidor, west of the intersection of 1442 and Highway 105. I hesitated to list the location but, hopefully, my few southeast Texas readers will respect the nest. One site I saw advises that you stay in your car so that the eagles won't be disturbed.

Pet Nutria

I've gotten four hits today for people searching for the term "pet nutria." They were directed to this lovely blog because of this lovely post. (I will spare you the re-posting of the lovely picture that you can see, if you dare, by clicking on the link.)

Four hits might not seem like much to you, but in the last week or so, I've been getting two or three hits a day for the search terms "nutria," "nutra," "nutria rat," or "pet nutria."

Is something going on out there in the nutria world that I should know about?

I Have a Question

Why are the stingrays so pissed off?

(This story about attacks increasing was published in 2004.)

(This story gives you more stingray attack info.)

My New Favorite Animal

THE BLUE FOOTED BOOBY

(Click here for more info)

Mmmmmm...bacon

Monster Wild BoarDate: 9/28/2003
Author: Frank Berbuir

Shot in France on September 28, 2003 by spot and stalk.
Weight: 486 lb (221 Kg)
Biggest Wild Boar shot with a Bow in this area until this day.
One of a lifetime - thanks to Chris & Bow Archery.
Bow: Mathews SQ2
Arrow: Beaman ICS Camo Hunter 400
Broadhead: Muzzy 2-Blade, 125 grain
Camo: Cabelas Realtree X-tra Brown
Optics: Zeiss Victory 10x40 and Bushnell Yardage Pro Sport Rangefinder.
What a hunt!
Thank you Mathews for this wonderful reliable bow.

Rockin' Rat

The above rat is a Laotian rock rat. It was thought to have been extinct for the last 11 million years. This lovely specimen waddles like a duck with its hind feet splayed out.

Sounds adorable.

The rodent (it isn't actually a rat) was originally thought to be a new species after biologists examined dead specimens found being sold in meat markets.

Sounds delicious.

For All My Lovely Sophisticated Friends

There are few things in this world that I find more disgusting than the dreaded nutria rat. In order to exorcise my inner demons, I felt that perhaps sharing my disgust with you, my delicate flowers, would lessen my revulsion.
It ain't working.



The dumbass above is even touching the horrible thing! You might be interested to know that, if you want to eat one of these delectable bastards, you can cook it like you would a muskrat. Let's hear Captain and Tenille sing a song about that.

I also found a recipe for barbequed nutria. Bon appetit, mes amies!

Barbecued Nutria

(compliements of Jo Reynolds)

Ingredients

1 large nutria, cleaned

1 bottle Kraft BBQ sauce

1 large onion, chopped

1 lemon, sliced

Salt and Pepper

Salt and pepper nutria. Stuff nutria body cavity with onion and lemon. Turn legs under and put in a large oven bag. Pour barbecue sauce plus one barbecue sauce bottle of water over nutria. Bake for one to one and a half hours in a 350 degree oven, or until done.

Take out and eat.

Killer Alligator Caught

One of the alligators responsible for killing a jogger recently has been caught. They found two arms inside the alligator.

The alligator responsible for attacking a snorkeler has also been caught. That just leaves...hundreds...thousands...millions of alligators left to kill the rest of us.

Have a nice summer.

First Documented Grizzly Polar Bear Hybrid...In The Wild

I love crap like this.

Edited to change title: According to a comment from Jack, grizzlies and polars have been boinking in zoos for a while. This is the first documented hybrid in the wild.


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Big Bear

I've received these pictures by e-mail a couple of times this week so you might have already seen them. Here are two stories that go along with the pictures:
Snopes (Be careful on this link. There is a particularly gruesome picture at the bottom.)
Truth or Fiction