Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, it’s door #2)

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Second rate reporter says what?

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

In after Baud. Damn.

I really should read my own blog.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Friday Evening Respite Open Thread: Encounters With Animals

Friday Evening Respite Open Thread: Encounters With Animals

by | 30 Comments

This post is in: 

And this thread by the guy responsible for EffinBirds and Swear_Trek:


Everyone is fine, eventually. Click the first tweet above for the whole thread — including bonus groundhog story!

Reader Interactions

30Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    I am straddling the hammock and the raccoon is sliding straight at my crotch and all I can think of is the laser scene in Goldfinger.

    Imagine dropping that sentence on someone cold and letting them try to figure out the context.

  7. 7.

    Sandia Blanca

    That wild cat’s EARS!!! And thanks for sharing the raccoon with bonus groundhog thread–I may need to start following him just for the nature comedy.

  8. 8.

    geg6

    LOLOLOL! I read that tweet aloud to my John (yes, the whole thing) and we are dying here. I needed a good laugh. Long week and now I have a week’s vacation. I’ve never needed it more.

  9. 9.

    Mary G

    Please note if you enjoyed the raccoon thread and have money to donate:

    If you’re representing a website that wants to run the raccoon hammock story and I say “please mention the fundraiser for @eji_org that I’m doing through @EffinBirds” and you balk at this — go eat dirt
    — Aaron Reynolds (@aaronreynolds) June 24, 2020

    Here is info about the org in a copy/paste of their Twitter bio:

    Equal Justice Initiative
    @eji_org
    We work to end mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and racial inequality. Led by Bryan Stevenson. Creators of
    @legacymuseum

    @MemPeaceJustice
    . #justmercy
    Montgomery, ALeji.orgJoined June 2012

  12. 12.

    Shana

    Wasn’t there an ad a few years ago from… Sears Optical (?) about a woman calling her cat in at night from her patio door and having a raccoon waddle in?

    This guy’s much much funnier though.

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    @S. Cerevisiae

    Something learned when working at a summer camp – it really works!

    When a skunk decides to check out the interior of your cabin in the middle of the night, quietly reach over and grab a flashlight. Shine the light onto to floor somewhere between the critter and the door, then move the beam slowly along until it is shining outside. The skunk will happily follow it.

    Oh, don’t neglect to hop out of bed and better shut the door afterward.

  15. 15.

    Mohagan

    The cat with the ears is a Caracal (Africa, Middle East, Central Asia).  They can leap 12 feet in the air to catch a bird.

  16. 16.

    James E Powell

    It always freaks me out a little bit when the Evening Thread goes up and I haven’t had lunch yet.

  17. 17.

    Gin & Tonic

    My feeding of the cat that seems to have relocated (from where?) into my yard is proceeding. Morning and evening I put a bowl out on the steps to the deck. If I go in the kitchen I can see it approach the bowl then v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y look up onto to the deck to make sure nobody is around before starting to eat.

  20. 20.

    CaseyL

    Those ears!! I had no idea caracals did that with their ears!

    And, animal encounter tweet threads are the best tweet threads.

  23. 23.

    debbie

    Has this been shared yet? This stray dog escorts groups of children crossing a street and gives what-for to the cars that don’t stop. Don’t mute!

    NOT YOUR TYPICAL CROSSING GUARD! A stray dog helped school children cross a busy street in Batumi, Georgia last week. The pooch even barked at a car that didn’t stop at the crosswalk. The person who captured the video said the dog is called “Kursha” and lives in the neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/nV1zvh6G23
    — CBS Newspath (@cbsnewspath) January 21, 2020

  26. 26.

    GregMulka

    • Mildly animal related, I pulled two full frames of honey tonight. They are currently smooshed in bucket one and will be strained into bucket two tomorrow. The frames weighed a combined 17 lbs. It should be close to a gallon. I’m hoping to pull at least four more frames from all three hives over the next couple weeks.
  27. 27.

    Wolvesvalley

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Since this is a respite thread, I guess it’s not too OT to tell you how much I’m looking forward to having The Wysman show up on my Kindle tomorrow. While waiting for it, I got and read Deep as a Tomb and enjoyed it as much as The Wind Reader. Maybe even more, in some respects: I loved the concept of The Forest and its feline deity (which I think I might start visualizing as a caracal).

  28. 28.

    opiejeanne

    @S. Cerevisiae: We have the hot tub skunk story.

    It was a dark evening in late October and the only light was an inadequate porch light up under the eaves, pointing away from the hot tub where we were slowly becoming human prunes. Something was crunching through the dry avocado leaves, heading right for us. We stood up but couldn’t really make out what it was, and we knew that skunks were visiting our yard at night to eat any fallen avocados that we had missed during the day, so we waited. And waited. Sitting in the hot water, getting more prune-y and hating the smell of the chlorine.

    After about 15 minutes that felt like more than an hour, a raccoon waddled between us and the light, heading for a better supper. You can image the relief.

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