Wherever he wants:
Just had dinner, we brushed him down and and he got a kitty massage and then terrorized the litter box, and then promptly passed out. That couch seat can fit two normal humans.
BTW- we have a Downy Woodpecker dominating my feeder and knocking on the tree right next to my porch, and he is magnificent, and kind of dominant. Saw him chase off a blu-jay (aka the asshole bully of the bird community), and he has been around for a week. We’re hitting the big city tomorrow and picking some suet up.
? Martin
Too bad you don’t have any of those.
Howard Beale IV
Seriously? He’s 22 lbs?
That’s one giant pussy….
Tommy
My cat literally has to be in my lap anytime I am not at my computer desk or standing up. Now she is pacing around my home office cause I have my computer on a lap board. I admit I really like this but at times it is kind of taxing.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/webranding/9607089314/
Biscuits
I’d dive right into that.
gogol's wife
There’s a great line in a story by Leonid Andreev: “A sleeping cat increased the quiet in the room.”
Tommy
@gogol’s wife: When my cat is asleep and I make a loud noise she will barely open her eye, raise her head a little, then glare at me. I since her saying, “would you shut up, trying to sleep over here.”
Wallis Lane
I call it “Still Life with Cat and Remote.”
phoebes-in-santa fe
22 pounds? He is beautiful, no matter what the weight.
Pogonip
How do you terrorize a litter box? Did it scream? Faint? Start up a Department of Litter Box Security? How do you KNOW it was terrorized?
Also on the subject of cats, if you like itty-bitty kittens, about 4 weeks old, go directly to goodmorningkitten.com. This looks like it’ll be itty-bitty week. And who doesn’t like itty-bitty kittens?
About the only thing cuter than 4-week-old kittens is 4-week-old puppies with those itty-bitty barks. When I was a kid my mom bred poodles. Every summer, a new litter. Every kid should have oodles of poodles. (This was the ’60’s, so the poodles were guaranteed homes.)
Comrade Jake
@? Martin:
Perfect!
aimai
Hittin’ the big city for some Suet? Hooo-eee! You are going to have quite a time.
Pogonip
@Wallis Lane: I can’t see the remote, the picture’s too dark. Should we take up a collection to buy John some light bulbs?
NotMax
Some kind of digital birdwatching app?
raven
@Pogonip: Click on it to embiggen.
Kristine
I put out suet blocks for the first time this winter, and had both downy and hairy woodpeckers by the score. Also, Northern flickers. And one gorgeous red-headed woodpecker.
But the squirrels love that stuff as well, so unless you want to go through a block every two days, you’ll need to figure out a way to keep them away.
Pogonip
@raven: Thank you!
If that cat gets any fatter he’ll have to move to Wall Street. I am surprised John found 2 cats in a row who’d overeat. Usually when a cat’s full he’s full and that is that. I’ve seen them even walk away from people food if they weren’t in a mood to eat. And if Steve gets any bigger, people may BE his food.
Litlebritdiftrnt
This weekend two red bellied woodpeckers were beating the treacle out of a snag that we have left in the back yard. I am not sure if they were looking for bugs or fixing to build a nest but it was a joyous sound.
Pogonip
@Kristine: For a moment I misread John’s original remark as “picking some slut up.”
Tommy
@Pogonip: Not my cat. She likes tuna from a can. If I put too much out she will eat till she gets physical sick. I know it isn’t the tuna itself, cause over time I figured out the correct amount so she won’t get sick but won’t pace around when I am in the kitchen cooking being a pain cause she just has to eat “regular” cat food (the expensive king I might add).
raven
@Pogonip: Any critter will overeat if someone feeds them that way.
TFinSF
You sure it was a Downy and not a Hairy woodpecker? The Downy’s are half the size of a Blue Jay and usually the pecking order is in line with that.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@Tommy:
Mine love their evaporated milk in the morning so much that one of them will actually nip at my ankles until I have opened the can. I am firmly of the belief that evaporated milk is Kitty Cocaine.
Pogonip
@Tommy: Sounds like she has you well trained! We had a cat once who liked buttered toast. Had to be butter. She was not interested in margarine.
Violet
I love it when woodpeckers come to the bird bath I have outside my kitchen window. They hang on trees differently than other birds and so the birdbath looks kind of uncomfortable for them. They end up drinking sort of sideways from the birdbath.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@TFinSF: I was wondering that because I always get the Hairys and Downeys confused and it is always the size that confirms the ID for me.
TFinSF
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Right, and I’ve seen Hairy’s go toe-to-toe with a Jay (occasionally, but usually not) but not Downy’s.
WereBear
Did you know a woodpecker wraps its tongue around its brain as a shock absorber?
You’re welcome.
Tommy
@Pogonip: My cat has zero interest in any human food outside bread. I always felt this was kind of strange. Well and tuna. But tuna in a can I am not even sure you can call “human food.”
Tommy
@Litlebritdiftrnt: I will have to try evaporated milk. She won’t try my skim milk. She walk up, sniff it, and just walk away.
MikeJ
We get either downy or hairy woodpeckers (hard to tell the diff at a glance), but more common is the pileated woodpeckers. 18″ tall and you can hear their calls from a mile away.
newdealfarmgrrrlll
@TFinSF:
I agree, sounds like a Hairy to me. I have both Hairy (h=huge) & Downy (d=diminutive) plus Red-bellied at my feeders. They seriously love the peanut feeder, that’s usually first choice. The Downies go to the suet feeder when the bigger guys are at the peanut feeder.
newdealfarmgrrrlll
@TFinSF:
I agree, sounds like a Hairy to me. I have both Hairy (h=huge) & Downy (d=diminutive) plus Red-bellied at my feeders. They seriously love the peanut feeder, that’s usually first choice. The Downies go to the suet feeder when the bigger guys are at the peanut feeder.
mainmata
@Kristine: A part of my life is battling squirrels. The squirrels in our area really can easily outdo any Cirque du Soleil performer in acrobatics. So I keep trying to come up with the next best rube goldberg.
TFinSF
@WereBear: Maybe if teabaggers could do that there would be no teabaggers. Think about that for a moment.
Culture of Truth
That’s a big cat.
Tommy
@mainmata: The power line that connects to my house and runs about 35 yards to the pole, well the squirrels by me run on it. Freaks my cat out cause it runs right outside my big window in my office, which is her favorite place to sit. At times I think they do it just to taunt her.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@MikeJ: I have had several Pileated in my yard and my immediate reaction the minute I see one is to do the happy dance and just lose my shit with joy. Seriously, I just get all squishy and forget to do all the important shit like take photos, document my sighting, try to document the time, day etc. I am like a kid who has just seen Santa for the first time. As a serious bird watcher I am useless.
Jane2
@? Martin: Perfect….there’s nothing more to add.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Tommy: Sweet kitty. Gray tabbies are the kind I love most. And I see you’re w********g!!. I always enjoyed reading your diaries and comments on GOS – until I decided I couldn’t stand the pie fights, etc. there.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@Tommy: The Squirrels in my garden sit on the feeders and taunt my cats. Most of the time they win, however occasionally I will come home to a dead half squirrel lying on the living room floor proving that my cats have got their revenge.
mainmata
We have woodpeckers probably because we have a lot of giant, old trees and you can hear them (loudly) from afar but we hardly ever see them. Evidently, I must try the suet approach. Do they like any particular platform for their suet?
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Litlebritdiftrnt: About the fourth time a pileated showed up in our yard, I finally managed to take a pretty good photo of it … but it’s on FB, which I’m not going to share here.
Violet
@mainmata: Woodpeckers hang when they eat, so they tend to like vertical feeders–something they can hang on. Other birds prefer the perching king, but woodpeckers not so much.
dexwood
Timely. I had a male Downy Woodpecker at a suet feeder yesterday and today. For the last 6 weeks a pair of Ladder-Back woodpeckers have been steppin’ up to the bar every day. First humming bird at a feeder 3 days ago. I’m so easily amused.
Tommy
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Thanks. I love her but honestly she can be almost too loving. Or put another way she needs attention almost 24/7. I know for most cat lovers that might not seem like a problem, but alas I mean she literally needs attention almost every second she isn’t asleep (which I admit is a lot of the time). As I said at times it can be taxing.
Violet
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Love the Pileated woodpeckers. Have them occasionally where I live but usually have to go to a less urban environment.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@mainmata: I have no great secret for attracting woodpeckers … but we literally have every woodpecker in the bird book in our back yard.They like to eat from our deck as well as from the feeder. And when it comes to suet, it can be as simple as mixing a seed mixture into a plastic container with bacon grease. They love that stuff. BTW – downies are pretty little things, but are truly the stupidest birds on the face of the earth.
NotMax
Same thing every year at this time. Little porch outside front door has a wind barrier on two sides and is open to the steps, which are to the left as one comes out the front door.
Birds stupidly think it is a great place to build nests. Starting about 15 seconds after sunrise, they keep flying in and try to get up on the narrow ledge where the barrier meets the sloping roof, banging into the walls and the roof. Again and again. Loudly.
When they attempt to put down the twig or hay or whatever they are carrying for nest building, it immediately drops onto the porch. At which point they promptly forget about it and fly off to find another piece.
So each day the porch becomes littered with a variety of stuff, some days so much that one makes crunching sounds if walking on it.
Tommy
@Litlebritdiftrnt: I actually like squirrels and even feed them. I’ve found sunflower seeds are like crack for them. I just wish they’d stop digging up the mulch I have in the front of my house. That does piss me off.
dr. luba
@mainmata: It took me years to get it right. I have a bird feeder on a pole with a squirrel baffle on it (like an upside down coffee can). It has to be just the right height or the squirrels will jump on top of the baffle and climb on to the feeder. Also, too, the feeder has to be far enough away from the house, phone line and any trees so that the squirrels can’t jump off of them and onto the feeder.
Anyway, I’ve attached a suet feeder to one side of the feeder by screwing a cup hook into the wooden part and hanging the wire suet cage from it. Successful so far.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Tommy: I do know what you mean. Our Grayg was like that. But, oh boy, do I miss him now that he’s gone. And he’s been gone for nearly ten years now.
Violet
@efgoldman: The baffles always work unless the feeder is too close to something that makes them accessible from the top. Would an inverse baffle work on the top? Like a Cone of Shame for the bird feeder?
raven
@NotMax: What about them Nene’s that live right above you?
dexwood
downies are pretty little things, but are truly the stupidest birds on the face of the earth
You haven’t met the Mourning Doves in my yard.
Violet
@dexwood: Doves have to be the dumbest. Big, fat and dumb.
Tommy
@dr. luba: That is what I have. The company is no longer in business, but my grandparents had it in their garden. Bought it in the 60s. When they passed away I moved it to my house I liked it so much. It does in fact work. But this year I have to trim back a tree. A few branches have grown close enough they can jump to it. They are little daredevils.
raven
@dr. luba: We have to worry about snakes going up the bluebird house pole. I try to remember to wd-40 the sucker.
dexwood
@Violet:
I’ve seen their numbers increase significantly for 20 years. When I moved in 27 years ago, I didn’t hardly ever see a dove. Persian doves are more numerous these days too.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@dr. luba: I like squirrels, too – but between those and the raccoons tearing up everything on our deck, we had to electrify the feeding area – which is also where many of our potted plants live in warm weather. And the raccoons loved to eat those potted plants. So an electric wire it is around the deck, and around our feeder. It works well … and the birds can still eat just fine. Not to mention the occasional brave squirrel.
NotMax
@raven
Would be good eatin’, if they weren’t the state bird and also protected.
Tommy
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Raccoons are maybe the one animal I don’t like. Sure they are cute but they will destroy anything. The people in my area that don’t have tops on their trash cans, well I wish the city could freaking fine them.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@raven: Yeah, this has been a problem for us, too. They love to climb up the poles where we’ve set the bluebird house – and the WD40 is just what we used. Husband is doing something new and different this year – but damned if I can remember what it is. It’ll work, I’m sure – he’s pretty inventive.
opiejeanne
John, get some peanuts in the shell, raw and unsalted, and make friends with that jay. They are fascinating birds: they live in family groups and if Gramps gets so old he can’t feed himself, the family will feed him. You may be able to feed him from your hand if you are patient.
raven
@NotMax: Ain’t many left since them dopes brought the mongoose huh?
koalaholik
@WereBear: I learn the strangest things reading this blog. Thank you
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Tommy: I f*****g hate them. I told my husband I wanted to sit up and listen for them after we electrified our deck, and hear them fall to the ground squealing like little piggies (our deck is one of those high altitude ones). The first night the wiring was installed, I heard exactly that – twice. I can’t tell you how much I loved it.
Howard Beale IV
@efgoldman: Indeed.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Howard Beale IV: I’m afraid I made the mistake of training a squirrel to eat peanuts out of my hand. I just can’t bring myself to be cruel to them. Raccoons, though …. grrrr.
Tommy
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Here in southern IL there are just no predators to thin out the numbers (I assume that is the case in most places). And the only place I’ve ever seen them eaten was in Louisiana in Cajun country.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
Apparently Nenes evolved from Canada Geese who discovered the islands 500,000 years ago and decided to stay. I can’t really blame them — who wants to fly all the way back to Canada once you’ve discovered Hawai’i?
Howard Beale IV
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Up around my neck of the woods I’ve seen mealnisitic (white) squirrels. Never saw them before I moved to MN.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Tommy: Same here (SE Iowa) re predator deficit – although we have had an increase in the mountain lion population here. I spotted one in my back yard a few years ago – a nursing female. Husband wanted to shoot the raccoons after seeing what they did to our potted plants, but quickly recognized the folly of that. So electricity it is.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Howard Beale IV: Never even heard of them! Checking it out …
Tommy
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Since you are not that far from me do you have the problems we have with deer? I literally know people that don’t like to use rural back roads after dark for fear of hitting one. Even on the major highways there is usually a dead deer on the side of the road. I know a lot of people, even ones that are not hunters, that want to increase the number that can be killed each year and even the hunting season. I think it could be easily argued it is at this point a public health issue. We’ve been too successful in bring back their numbers.
NotMax
OT:
Raven, something which makes the ol’ hackles rise in disgust outta your neck of the woods.
The Fat Kate Middleton
OK. Just checked out images for melanistic squirrels. Pretty amazing.
Howard Beale IV
@efgoldman:
That would also include bald eagles, of which I’ve seen a few as well. One day a co-worker and I were walking along a branch of the the Mississippi and we saw one fly past.
mainmata
OT it’s now snowing pretty heavily in Silver Spring, MD just outside DC on Tax Day. Hmmm…don’t usually get snow at all past mid-March. Welcome to the wild gyrations of the future thanks to climate change (and Exxon and the Koch Brothers and all the Congress Critters they’ve bought that will kill us all).
Comrade Dread
Well a trip to the ER and an overnight stay in a hospital and a ton of tests to find out that no, I wasn’t having a heart attack, I was just having a panic attack and need to be on drugs for anxiety. Fun times.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Tommy: I literally know people that don’t like to use rural back roads after dark for fear of hitting one. Even on the major highways there is usually a dead deer on the side of the road.
This. Yes. One of the reasons I’m so glad I was able to retire recently was my fear of driving during the times of year and day when the deer were everywhere. I seem to be the only one in my family who hasn’t yet hit a deer. Or maybe I should say a deer hasn’t hit me – they seem to make a point of aiming themselves at you. They are so beautiful – but around here, they’re referred to as rodents with antlers.
Violet
The only squirrels I like are the Red Squirrels that live in Scotland. Family that lives there feed them and you’ll see them come to the feeders and eat the carrots left for them. They’re really cute with their tufted ears. (Pictures at the link). They are an endangered species and there’s a great effort to save them.
Howard Beale IV
@Comrade Dread: Yer gonna need those drugs once you get the bills for that overnight stay and the cost of the tests.
Be glad, that they won’t be as bad as one poor sot whose 4 hour Remicade infusion (excluding insurance) for arthritis cost $133,000 (their insurance covered $99,000-but still…..)
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Comrade Dread: So sorry about this. Sounds like a talk with Cole might be called for here.
mellowjohn
to all who are worried about steve’s weight: this is not a tunch we’re talking about. maine coons (including my 20-pounder) are humungous, very solid cats. with a whole lot of fur.
Violet
@Comrade Dread: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can really help with panic attacks. A friend of mine was prone to them and did CBT training with someone who specialized in it and it helped him a lot. You do have to keep up with the exercises, but it can work really well. Best of luck. I know it’s really scary.
Tommy
@The Fat Kate Middleton: What the hunters point out is each year a new record is set for the largest deer shot. They note they are getting mature. They are thriving. But we have been too successful getting the numbers back up. I tend to agree because a few people die each year hitting deer. Many more hurt.
Pogonip
@Howard Beale IV: We have white squirrels in my area too. And one year there was w white squirrel with a gray tail.
muddy
I hang a cable horizontally and then hang the feeders as pendants. In between pendants I have pieces of 2″dia. PVC pipe cut about 5″ long. The squirrels used to walk on the cable to get over, and then hang down to the food. These spin and slip when they are stepped on, so the squirrels get the logroll ride over the edge and fall off. It’s great to watch. Don’t put one long tube, put a bunch of short ones. It reminds me of a Japanese game show.
Comrade Dread
@Howard Beale IV: My insurance, thank God, is better than that. I think my annual cap is $20,000 tops (which I’m hoping this doesn’t cost that much.) But it still makes me wish I lived in that communist hellhole of France or that bastion of Marxism Germany.
Howard Beale IV
@Pogonip:
Now that be a pretty rare beastie.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Tommy: An acquaintance of ours who taught foreign language at my husband’s high school died when a deer leaped and broke through the windshield of her car. I always think of that when I drive the highway near our rural neighborhood.
Howard Beale IV
@Comrade Dread: The question is whether or not you’ve maxed out your deductible, and how bad is the percentage of your co-pay. Emergency admits are a license for the healthcare providers to ratchet up the prices they charge for the services they provide. Hell, I’d hate to think what the current daily rate for a hospital bed is-if it hasn’t reached 4 figures yet it will.
Tommy
@The Fat Kate Middleton: What is stunning is I often see them just by the side of the road. Near a house. It appears there is not the fear of civilization as you might think. And on top of that I live in a rural area and there are plenty of other places they could be. It is more like they are encroaching on us and we’re not encroaching on them. Again, I have to think that is because of the sheer number of them, which frankly I’ve never seen published. You’d think the Illinois Fish & Wildlife department would know the numbers.
? Martin
@The Fat Kate Middleton: When my dad was still in the insurance biz he did a brief stretch as a claims adjuster. He spent about a month in northern Montana, and he said that a shocking number of the claims he was covering were moose strikes, and most of them resulted in either the driver or a passenger or both being killed. Moose are almost the perfect height for a car hood to slip under the moose’s body and have the 700 lb animal go directly through the windshield at whatever speed the vehicle was traveling.
Tommy
@? Martin: I could not imagine the damage a moose would do. I’ve seen what deer do and a mouse could be almost 2-3x larger then an adult deer.
Howard Beale IV
@Tommy: An an ex-IL resident, they were actually fairly common in the far northwest portion of Chicagoland-I once spotted a deer prancing around my subdivision in Carpentersville, just a few miles north of I-90 and Randall Road.
Tommy
@Howard Beale IV: I don’t know the Chicago area that well but that would not surprise me in the least. My house is surround on two sides with fields that back up to huge woods. At night if I was on my roof with a scope, after the corn is harvested, I could easily kill one. But I am pretty sure my city and the police would frown on this :).
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Tommy: “By the side of the road”… and those that aren’t killed limp or drag themselves through our backyard. It’s so sad and sickening. And then there are those that die in the field behind our house – we’ve counted as many as 30 bald eagles eating them there. Don’t get me wrong – despite what I’m saying, we love living here. But the deer are definitely a problem.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@? Martin: That would explain my sister’s attitude toward moose.She lives in Maine, and two of her children have been in car accidents with moose.
Comrade Dread
@Howard Beale IV: Actually, I’m better off than I thought. Deductible is only $1,700 for in network service providers, ER visit is $150, and everything beyond the $1,700 is covered at 80%. That 20% could still be a giant pain in the ass, but it’s better than bankruptcy.
Tommy
@The Fat Kate Middleton: I love wildlife. Now I am not a hunter but I also know many people by me work so they can hunt. Not only is it something many people enjoy, it makes the state a lot of money. And honestly, I’ll take some wild game over almost any other food. But as I said in one of my first comments about this it has become a public health issue IMHO.
BTW: You have bald eagles in IA. I did not know that.
raven
@NotMax: I would be surprised if they only came from here.
Howard Beale IV
@Comrade Dread: Now what’s your stop-loss?
Pogonip
@Tommy: I could easily sit on my porch and bag 20 squirrels in an hour if I weren’t in the city limits.
Tommy
@Pogonip: I could almost do that with rabbits. I have a family of them that lives in a dense shrub bush in my front yard. But I kind of like the little guys/gals :).
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Tommy: I, too, love wildlife, and have no problem with hunting. And I entirely agree with your statement about deer becoming a public health problem. And I have no idea what we can do about it.
Re the bald eagles: My husband and I sat out on a beach off the Cedar River (just across from our house), and counted at least 200 bald eagles.
Tommy
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Don’t let Alton Illinois find out. Going to the bluffs off the Mississippi when they are nesting is actually a big tourist boom for them. Heck the casino in town ran ads last year saying come to Alton to see the eagles and come play some blackjack.
PurpleGirl
In Westchester, Nausau and Suffolk counties (NYS) you can hunt deer with bow and arrow but not guns. The deer populations are sufficiently large that the state wants people to hunt with bow and arrow. It seems weird somehow.
NotMax
@raveN
Indubitably so. But as it is an Atlanta-oriented story, just thought of mentioning it.
Pogonip
@Tommy: I can’t kill rabbits. I’d feel like I was assassinating Hazel. Squirrels, however..
Tommy
@Pogonip: Neither could I. I mentioned I like wild game of all kinds, but the couple times I’ve had rabbit, not really a fan.
NotMax
@Pogonip
Made me flash back to the “Pets or meat?” lady in the Michael Moore film.
Liquid
Rachel just had Richard Engel on and damn, he really sounded like he was in pain. By the end I was almost expecting him to be tackled/straitjacketed. This whole thing stinks of Tom Clancy.
jeffreyw
Caught an albino raccoon on a camera overlooking the automatic feeder down by my back pond the other night.
? Martin
@efgoldman: Sure, cheering for another white death.
Racist.
skerry
Where I live, there are annual controlled hunts (pretty suburban area) by specially licensed personnel. All venison is donated to local food banks. They tend to hunt in parks that are closed to public and often with night-vision equipment. The deer population is definitely a public health issue – not to mention the destruction to gardens and landscaping. Over 800 families were helped with meat this winter.
Tommy
@skerry: I’ve never heard a good reason, heck even a reason, why we just don’t offer more permits or extend the hunting season. Everybody around me know it is a problem.Everybody I know has literally hit a deer or almost hit a deer. When something is that common it is a health issues I’d say.
Violet
Just saw this NoiseMax headline over on the right column:
Ha ha ha! He got so burned last election he must think this is some kind of damage control.
Jay C
@mainmata:
Heh – the first time I ever saw snow at age 12 (I’m an L.A. kid) was in Washington DC about mid-April: I was freaked out that it got so cold so quick, and all this white stuff just fell out of the sky and lay there piling up.
Speaking of which, it’s snowing like a sumbitch here in Gotham right now: of course, after several days of 60+ temps, nothing is going to stick, but it’s still weird…
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: The deer population has to stay at about a certain size in order to achieve two things; it has to be large enough to have a healthy breeding stock and it must be kept small enough that they don’t overgraze their territory and starve, The various state DNRs actually do a pretty good job of maintaining that balance. You need to remember that the deer population in a state isn’t evenly distributed. Perhaps everyone in your neck of the woods has had an encounter, but I bet few people living in downtown Chicago have.
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: Honestly I had not thought of the breading stock, clearly that is important.
Seth
I advocate reintroducing wolves.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: Deer herd management is complicated.
Also, as far as getting hit by, or hitting one goes, you really need to keep your eyes scanning the edges of the road and the treeline when driving around dawn or dusk. Deer are very active then; they are also as dumb as a box of rocks. If you catch, any hint of their eyes glowing, get ready to hit the brakes – you may not need to, but be prepared. I have been driving in deer infested lands much of the time I have had a license and have yet to have a problem.
Also, don’t feed squirrels; the little fuckers are just rats with good PR.
@Seth: We actually have them in WI. They just don’t come far enough south to mess with all the deer. Plus, the gun nut assholes want to hunt them now.
Wolves are awesome. There are a few near my family’s cabin in northern WI. Other family members have seen them and gotten photos, but I haven’t yet. this is unfair since I am the one who loves wolves.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
You’d be surprised. Also, G and I have seen deer fairly often in Oak Park, which borders Chicago — don’t forget, Cook County has a huge amount of green space.
We have lots of deer out here in Hell-A, but we also have coyotes and mountain lions to keep them in check.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Figure it by percentage of population in the county who has had an encounter.
ETA: I’ve seen possums in both downtown Chicago and downtown Columbus, OH. Those little fuckers are nature’s mistake, but they are adaptable.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Again, I’d say it’s fairly high BUT Chicago is in an unusual situation since Cook County has 68,000 acres of forest preserve and other green space. It’s not like, say, New York, where you have parks but they don’t really connect to each other.
I’m still amused by Adrian, the Quizno’s-seeking coyote.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Do you have a point other than being argumentative? Let me move it to Wisconsin. Are you more likely to have frequent deer encounters in Oneida County or Milwaukee County? Now adjust for population. Jesus.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
The only place I ever came close to hitting a deer was in Kenosha, near UW Parkside. Maybe deer liked my old Celica.
ETA: Also, too, I’m saying that after living in Los Angeles for 20+ years, Chicago looks like a city set in the middle of a forest. There’s virtually no concept of natural space out here unless it’s in an area that’s unlivable, like the mountains or desert.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Objection, non-responsive.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
More deer in the city.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: I did not ever suggest that there are no deer in Cook County. Go back and read what I wrote and stop trying to pick a fight where there is no fight to happen.
seaboogie
@WereBear: That is my take-away for today. Pretty sure that if I could manage that, life would be a whole lot easier as I beat my head against whatever comes up….
Paul in KY
@? Martin: Another problem with moose is they don’t get out of the way when a car comes. The moose thinks the car should be afraid of it.
Wally Ballou
@Jay C: My birthday is April 30. When I was nine years old (1982) we were planning a family party for the Sunday before, which was the 25th. The night before we had a freak snowstorm, and that morning my dad broke his leg when he tripped over something in the yard hidden by the snow cover and fell.
I don’t know who was more pissed: the old man, over winding up in a cast due to a snowstorm in the last week of April, or his self-centered 9yo kid, whose birthday party was postponed a week.
J R in WV
@MikeJ:
We have a ton of those pileated woodpeckers. I lurves me the big woodpeckers – I understand they’re much like Ivory-billed woodpeckers were, just dark-billed and more flexible about their wooded habitat.
Sounds like a dinosaur when they call in the deep woods!
We had a snag full of woodpecker nest last summer just behind the back bedroom, Mrs J R would sit in her reading chair with binoculars, read a while, watch heavy-weight bird construction for a while. She was loving it…