As mentioned previously, I have an idiosyncratic method for housetraining puppies that is conceptually simple but extraordinarily difficult to pull off. It requires synching my wake/sleep cycle to the puppy’s as closely as possible and devoting almost 100% of my attention to the dog for our first two or three weeks together. It’s annoying as fuck for both of us, but it works pretty well for potty training (also for discouraging the chewing of cords, clothes, shoes, furniture, etc.).
Via constant surveillance, I know when to whisk the pup outside for toileting when he wakes up, after he finishes eating or when he breaks off from play or contemplation and starts sniffing around. There are accidents and setbacks due to MY lapses of attention, but we mostly succeed. This entails us being outside at all hours of the day and night, at least briefly, rain or shine, heat or chill.
Since we live in a remote swamp, it’s very dark after sundown, and we can see an astonishing number of stars on clear nights. We hear lots of scary noises at night that must trigger an instinctive response in the canine brain, because even my wee descendent of pampered lapdogs flinches at the sudden WOK! of a passing Black-Crowned Night Heron or the startling Hoo-hoo-huh-HOOOOO! of a nearby Barred Owl.
He’s right to be terrified of the owls. They take rabbits that are bigger than he is right now, and it will be weeks before he develops sufficient ballast to deter winged predators. So, I guard the pup closely during our nocturnal rambles and assure him — aloud — that I will punch any owl who tries to take him. And I love owls! But I would punch one in the face if it swooped down to carry off my puppy!
Is the highly unlikely possibility of having to punch an owl an odd thing to think about? Yes. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep for more than a week. I hope to be more lucid in 2022. That’s my New Year’s resolution.
Open thread.
Richard Roberts – Please Don’t Tell My Parents!
Old School
Please get a trail camera so that there is video of you punching an owl.
Chetan Murthy
Reading your post, I had a sudden vision of having to do that for three years. [i.e. with a newborn human] Oof! So much work!
PST
With you 100 percent on puppy training. Reward success, limit the occasions for failure. It’s tough but it doesn’t take long and it pays off for life.
NotMax
Housetraining became less easy once we stopped receiving physical delivery of newspapers.
coin operated
The Dad lives in N. Idaho and has seen more than one Cali transplant lose their pet to predators. If he catches them in time, he’ll let them know that their pet is on the menu to a whole range of animals both grounded and airborne.
Geminid
Owls are sensitive, knowing birds. If you keep that “I’ll punch you!” energy going I think they’ll move on to less problematic prey.
WaterGirl
Puppies are exhausting. And exhilarating at the same time. This is why god made them so cute.
cope
That’s basically how I potty trained our latest pup. The scariest moment, which I described in more detail here once before, was when a big freakin’ owl glided about 15 feet in front of us, perpendicular to the direction we were headed at about 3 A.M. one morning. Never heard a thing. She was a tiny bit then (less than 10 pounds) and I’ve no doubt the owl could have snatched up. Now, at about 30 pounds and accustomed to wrestling with her two pit bull bffs, I think she would have a better chance.
Oh yeah, we also took up every throw rug in our tiled house
germy
Benchley buys an anniversary present:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Hu2-aoY6M
This fiction wasn’t very far from fact, in his case.
Betty Cracker
@cope: Damn, I missed that anecdote! There are tons of owls around here, and they are absolutely silent when flying.
Ken
I believe a tennis racket is the traditional improvised weapon for bats, but I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t also work with owls.
TaMara (HFG)
Oh, good, now I don’t feel so bad about the night I took the sharp rake to the raccoon family that bit Scout. I’m pretty sure I injured one of them because they sat up in the tree and made pitiful cries every time I came out to see if they had moved on yet.
Yes, they sound pathetic and I kind of felt bad. BUT, go after my ducks and my dog and feel the sharp end of a rake.
So you go and punch that owl.
NeenerNeener
I worried about the local raptors when I was puppy sitting a few weeks back. Granted, the doodle puppy was probably as big as any of the local hawks and owls but I didn’t want to give the her back to my boss with puncture holes in her.
Miss Bianca
Oh, my – that is an image, Betty! I currently live way up high on a mountaintop, and I might have to punch bears and mountain lions in addition to owls and eagles up here!
(How did I manage to potty-train Watson and Luna up here? The mind goes blank – I think there was a crate involved at night.)
germy
Owl Data, by Robert Benchley
A graduate student in the Ornithology Department of Cornell University is looking for data on horned owls. He is writing a thesis for his doctorate on “Is the Horned Owl a Friend or an Enemy of the Farmer?” and wants people to send in their experiences.
I do not know so much about the farming end of it, but I can testify that the horned owls in my room are definitely unfriendly. I sometimes wish that I had never let them in.
* * * * *
There are only two of them, and so I don’t suppose that any extensive conclusions can be drawn. They may just be two particularly unfriendly owls by nature. I, too, may not be doing my part. It takes two or three to make a quarrel. Possibly if I were to throw them a smile now and then they would be more chummy.
But I don’t feel like smiling at them. They don’t inspire friendliness. They just sit and look at me all night and sleep all day. I have even tried sleeping during the day myself and going out at night, just to get away from their everlasting scrutiny, but that isn’t a natural way to live. I can’t rearrange my whole life just for a couple of horned owls.
* * * * *
I asked Mr. MacGregor what to do about them, and he said that he didn’t know.
“Is that all you’ve got to say?” I asked him.
“It’s all for the present,” he replied. He didn’t seem to want to talk about them very much.
“Do you think we’d like them any better if they were stuffed?” I asked.
“No,” he said shortly.
So I dropped the subject and tried to forget. The owls were sitting on the top of a bookcase at the time, and I put a screen up in front of them. This helped a little, but it was almost worse at night to look at the screen and know that they were sitting behind there with their eyes wide open, even though I couldn’t see them. A couple of nights I even thought I heard them whispering.
* * * * *
Finally, one day, I said to MacGregor, “I don’t think you’re doing very much to help this situation.”
“What situation is that?” he asked.
“The owl situation,” I said.
“Had you thought of moving to another house?” he asked. Mr. MacGregor doesn’t sleep here, and so the thing had not reached the proportions in his mind that it had in mine. He has no owls out where he sleeps.
“That’s all very well for you to say,” I snapped back, my nerves finally giving way, “but how are we going to move the bookcase? Who’s going to take the screen down, in the first place?”
“I guess you’re right,” said MacGregor, and turned and walked away.
That is where the matter stands today. I am afraid that I haven’t been able to give much help to the Cornell student, but I will give him two horned owls if he wants them—if he will come and get them.
cope
@Betty Cracker: Dead silent and not a molecule of air disturbed by its passage. Usually something that big flying closely by produces a bit of turbulent air and noise but not owls on the glide. Scared the shit out of me.
Another Scott
@germy: Oof. Even when you see it coming, it’s still kinda amazing.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
CaseyL
It is amazing how our love for all things great and small goes right out the window when those things could possibly be a threat to our household critters.
I leave my balcony doors open in the summer, and a few years back had a whole family of raccoons, Mom and four babies, come in, go downstairs, and help themselves to the bowls of kitty kibble. They’d been doing so for days without my realizing it – I just figured the kitties were polishing off the food – until that night, when one of the raccoon babies trilled to Mom as they were going downstairs, and woke me up.
One of my cats, Oscar, has a live and let live attitude towards raccoons, having obviously never tangled with one.
But his mom, Jeannie, hates them like poison: one of her kittens vanished when it was a few weeks old, and it’s possible a raccoon took it. With my own eyes I once saw her square off to a raccoon and whack it repeatedly across the face. The racoon backed off and ran away (it was likely a youngster).
So that night, I had a whole family of ’em on my stairs, Jeannie having a shit-fit on the landing.
If not for Jeannie and Oscar, I would happily have left the raccoons alone, let them eat to their heart’s content. But: MY CATS NEEDED TO BE DEFENDED. Not even, or just, bodily: I had a feeling that Jeannie, esp., would never feel safe in the house again if I didn’t get the raccoons out asap.
I will gloss over the rest of that night, and say only that I wound up having to arrange all the furniture downstairs into a narrow path from the dining room (where the family had retreated to, under a table), through the kitchen, and out the front door before they were all herded out.
So I completely understand what Betty Cracker means when she says, “I love owls, but mess with my pup and I will END YOU.”
I can only imagine what it’s like with parents of human children.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I’m sure you are a fierce protector. Pete is safe with you. But maybe the tennis racket isn’t a bad idea for the 3am potty trips.
germy
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: I understand that your book was delivered today!
germy
@Another Scott:
Always fun to see how the screenwriters had to tiptoe around adult subjects.
Mike in NC
I saw an owl in the wild exactly once, many years ago at Boy Scout camp in New Hampshire.
germy
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: Oh, rly? I was wondering when it might show up! I will check mail tomorrow, thank you for the notice!
(Today is all about hunkering down in the face of the winter winds, burning lots of firewood, baking pumpkin pudding, and avoiding work on my newspaper articles.)
Benw
Sunday we went to a nearby wildlife refuge that has unreleasable animals. Our favs are the owls that stare back at the people with haughty condescension. (although the possum is awesome) Then I took a cool pic of an owl wood carving that had serious owl vibes.
The Moar You Know
Raising puppies is brutal. Very hard work. Our current doggie was a stubborn motherfucker as a baby. He’s now a very well behaved stubborn motherfucker.
Tony Jay
You know, just saying, you can probably book a couple of hours at an Owl sanctuary and, should the staff be distracted by your other half setting off a fire alarm, can then punch out as many of the flat-faced mousegobblers as you can catch.
Also works with pandas.
Roger Moore
@Ken:
Owls tend to be bigger than bats.
Another Scott
BlueVirginia.US – State Supreme Court drawn maps are out.
So, a Biden+10 state that is presently 7D:4R could end up 5D:6R.
Yes, the state supreme court is GOP dominated – why do you ask??
Grr….
Cheers,
Scott.
The Moar You Know
@Mike in NC: Go to San Diego. We’ve got them everywhere. All through suburbia, and in the wild. Coyotes too. I see owls several times a year.
prostratedragon
@germy: Funny. And the “Boogie Barcarolle” number that follows is good.
mrmoshpotato
No. You live in owl territory with a puppy.
danielx
Saw two foxes in neighborhood today, broad daylight…
Baud
@Another Scott:
Is that the final?
germy
@prostratedragon:
It’s an entertaining film.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: 38 and cloudy and most definitely gross outside now. ?
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: If anyone else hasn’t received their gift book yet, please let me know ASAP. thanks.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Stealthy bastards.
prostratedragon
@germy: Sometimes a couple of reversed pivots and a head-and-shoulder fake are needed to make the play interesting.
ColoradoGuy
In our neighborhood here in CO we have a matched pair of 6-foot wingspan Great Horned Owls that roost in the cottonwoods by the creek. Big mofos that land on the roof at night with a loud “whump!”
Walking our terrier-sized dog at night is interesting. Occasionally during summer nights, one of the things will fly from rooftop to rooftop, stalking us. I have a high-powered LED flashlight with a dazzling emergency-strobe function, and I aim that right at the giant owl when it tries to stalk us, blinding it for at least a little while. If I can’t stand to look directly at it, I figure it’s a lot less pleasant for the owl, with those big high-efficiency eyes. Seems to work; it hasn’t stalked us for quite a while.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: We had THREE minutes of big fat wet snowflakes that melted immediately into the ground but which immediately became soaking wet slush on my vehicle.
So I ran out, pulled the car under the carport, wiped all the slush off with my bare hands – freezing slush is COLD! – and went back into the house. It was 34 degrees at the time and getting colder, so if I hadn’t done that I would have had an inch or two of frozen ice over the entirety of my vehicle.
Another Scott
@Baud: Seems so, unless there’s some federal action on it (which would be unexpected). The court voted for all the maps unanimously.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@prostratedragon:
“To a hungry man a lamb chop is a tasty dish. But to the butcher it’s just another hunk of meat.”
mrmoshpotato
@TaMara (HFG): LOL! Totally!
Geminid
@Mike in NC: I got to see a Great Horned Owl when I visited Santa Rosa (New Mexico) State Park three years ago. I was walking out among some cedar shrubs at dawn and the owl came gliding past maybe 25 feet away. It was looking for a rabbit breakfast I think. I was near the same place, same time the next morning and saw it again.
Santa Rosa State Park is not the prettiest of parks, but I like it as a camping stop when I drive to New Mexico. There is an eight mile horse riding loop near the tent sites. I liked the loop because I could wander inside of it and not get lost. That’s where I saw the owl. The tent sites are on a ridge above the lake and can be very windy. The wind is a little calmer in town eight miles away where there is a nice library, and also good chow at the Comet II restaurant.
raven
I won’t bore you with my owl and “mobbing” behavior story but check out this dude who got caught in our yard a few years back. The mobbing birds kept nailing him in the back of the head and it wore all the feathers off. Also, check out the claws on this dude.
mrmoshpotato
@NeenerNeener:
No local T-Rex clocked at 32 miles per hour?
Jay
https://www.audubon.org/news/how-do-barn-owls-fly-so-silently
Baud
@Another Scott:
That sucks.
NeenerNeener
@mrmoshpotato: Only in my nightmares after seeing Jurassic Park.
SpaceUnit
Saw an owl a few weeks ago. It was just sitting on a branch outside a house in my neighborhood. The only reason I noticed it was because a handful of magpies were flitting all over the tree and squawking like mad. They clearly didn’t like having it around.
I just looked at the owl and it looked back at me. And I don’t claim to be an expert at reading owl facial expressions but I got the distinct impression that it was just hoping one of those magpies would cross a line or get a little too close. There were some serious FAFO vibes.
Don’t know what kind of owl it was, but it was big. I moved along because I don’t need any trouble from a big angry bird of prey.
mrmoshpotato
@Tony Jay:
Do you like mice or something?
germy
@mrmoshpotato:
Owls are badass. They have mouse bones in their poop.
mrmoshpotato
@NeenerNeener: Must sleep faster.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: Yes they do.
Betty Cracker
We live upstairs (stilt house), and the pup is too small to handle the stairs, so I walk him up and down them two dozen times a day. Have thought about attaching a dog harness on a swivel to a 50-lb. line on the mister’s grouper reel and lowering the pup down and reeling him back up. ? Not really owl-safe though.
TheOtherHank
I’ve never punched an owl, but many years ago I slapped a mallard and a coot. I was eating lunch on the lawn by the UCSB lagoon and they wanted to steal my chips. That was not to be allowed.
mrmoshpotato
Click it!
mrmoshpotato
@TheOtherHank: We need details on these chips before we judge.
Miss Bianca
@Tony Jay:
OK, I lost it, officially, at “flat-faced mousegobblers”.
Geminid
@Another Scott: That Virginia map looks 6D, 4R to me, with the eleventh seat, Elaine Luria’s Tidewater 2nd District, a 50-50 proposition. Spanberger’s 7th District is described as D+7, and I think Wexton’s 11th District has a similar composition. Scott, McEachin, Beyer, and Moran all look safe.
raven
@SpaceUnit: How’d you like this one to look at you?
germy
this is my favorite owl:
https://youtu.be/7hRSfvpOz4A?t=3
hueyplong
We have an owl, and we have video of it perched on the kitchen skylight looking down menacingly into the kitchen at a beloved but aged cat that has since passed, replaced by young King Henry.
Spouse named the owl Owl B Back.
Don’t encourage her.
Another Scott
@Geminid: Redistrict (Dave Wasserman of Cook Political Report) indicates that Luria and Spanberger, Luria especially, have more difficult paths to victory. That would make it 5:6 if they lose. (Luria being on the 1/6 Committee certainly gave the GQP extra motivation to try to take her seat away.)
We’ve got to be fired up when the time comes. We know that the GQP will be…
Cheers,
Scott.
SpaceUnit
@raven:
If I came across that one I’d run and take refuge in a church!
germy
TheOtherHank
@mrmoshpotato: Well, they were tortilla chips with a side of salsa. The mallard got one before I noticed his intentions. When he came back for more he got the back of my hand. He must have gone off and told the coot that I was giving away chips, because a few minutes later a coot came up with greed in his eyes. The coot got the back of my hand too. After that I got to enjoy my chips in peace.
Nelle
Two snowy owls from spending summers on Barter Island, an island only in summer, off the northeast coast of Alaska. First, we were having a high lemming summer and there were snowy owls everywhere. One was injured so one of the housemates built a big cage outside and then took her dog out to catch lemmings to feed it. So we could spent quite a bit of time watching it gobble the lemmings.
Second, I went wandering on the tundra near the village where we lived. It was wonderfully warm so I stretched out on the tundra and dozed. I woke to a snowy owl gliding back and forth above me, trying to figure out if I was worth trying to pick apart or not. It was rather lovely to be peered down on by the owl.
Odie Hugh Manatee
My wife ran over an owl, making it into an ex-owl. Late at night on the twisty old coast highway as she was cresting a rise that sharply banked left. We both see the outline in the headlights right before we were over it, then we heard a thump against the undercarriage.
Whoops.
Jay
One of the joys of living in the mountains that I miss, was the owls, in summer and winter. In the winter, we could sit in the living room with a good fire going, and on overcast or snowy days, watch Great Grey owls hunt in the front yard or garden, tracking mice and voles by sound, under 3 feet or more of snow, before plunging out of sight in the snow, often enough returning with prey.
In the summer, owl hooting in the night, Barn Owls, Pygmy Owls, Burrowing Owls in the upper meadow.
Tony Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
Not in that way.
It’s not like they’re rabbits.
Tony Jay
@Miss Bianca:
8-)
JPL
@Geminid: There were great horned babies, that visited me several mornings in a row in my previous house. It was magical. I took the dog out and they were still on a lower limb, but then a great shadow appeared. Momma or Pappa became concerned. Although, I only live a few miles away, I haven’t seen any here.
Jay
@Tony Jay:
you didn’t detail attacking the Pandas, you only hinted at it.
HEMA or Kung Fu?
Miss Bianca
@Tony Jay: I mean, the whole image is hysterical, but that phrase in particular put it right over the top.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ken: Why is this blog all about bats today?
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: My parents have a Great Horned in one of their trees. My mom hopes it eats the woodpecker who attacks the house every few days. It will probably just eat the voles though.
seefleur
As a parent of four 2 legged kids (now adults) and numerous 4-legged ones (4 dogs, 7 cats, not including all the small “other” category critters), after reading your post I realized that this is how I’ve raised all the two and four-legged beings over the past 40 years. No wonder my kids say that I’m insane – it’s from lack of sleep! But on the high side, all four kids and all the pets have been wonderful over the long haul. And even more so as a grandparent, I totally understand how one could be inspired to punch and owl, or a coyote, or even a bear…
Tony Jay
@Jay:
I don’t take any chances. Always lead with a quick taser to the furry fun pouch, then a few joyful minutes working over the black-eyed bamboo-addict with weighted saps before scaling the fence and getting out.
I’ve seen the movies, I know those fluffy fuckers have game.
Ancient Atheist
@Ken: So we’ve moved from puppy training and sleep deprivation to owl tennis. I love BJ!
the pollyanna from hell
An owl spoke to me in my backyard tent 3am this morning, Denver. The ones I have seen in this neighborhood are not large.
Geminid
@Another Scott: Dave Wasserman describes Spanberger’s 7th seat as “Biden +7,” and notes that old 7th district that she’s won twice was Biden +1. He also says that Wexton’s 11th District seat is “safe.” So like I said, I see a 6D, 4R map with Luria’s 2nd District up for grabs.
Republicans were already going all out against Elaine Luria. Former Senator George Allen and Virginia Beach Sheriff Ken Stolle helped a local Delegate launch her campaign earlier this year. Like Luria, the Republican is retired military. Unlike Luria, she has strong primary competition.
The main effect of Luria’s January 6 Commitee presence will be to put her on the national Democratic map, and attract donations from people who had scarcely heard of her before.
Tony Jay
@Miss Bianca:
Then my cunning plan worked.
Next Christmas, why don’t you treat friends and family alike to Tony Jay’s – Insulting the Animals: From the Anus-Nosed Aardvark to Zebras are just Xeroxed Horses, show the lower species’ who’s boss for only $21.99 in hardback.
laura
John Madden, dead at 85. The hits just keep on coming this week.
Jay
@the pollyanna from hell:
https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/resource-sharing/state-pubs-blog/colorados-owl-species/
Geminid
@laura: I liked how Madden didn’t fly, and took his RV to the games he called.
Van Buren
The geographer in me wants to know if there are any swamps that are not remote.
pluky
When we would take our first puppy to the field across the street for a nice romp we quickly learned to keep an eye on the gulls. They were clearly clocking her with a “we can take that” look.
Omnes Omnibus
@Van Buren: Swamps or marshes? Too many people conflate them.
Kay
@CaseyL:
I love this story.
smith
@Van Buren: The Great Swamp is right in the middle of the New Jersey suburbs.
Peale
@laura: Harry Reid also died.
Princess Leia
Harry Reid has died, as Laura just mentioned.
NotMax
“this is farcical”
Oh, I bet if we put on our thinking caps we could come up with few other choice words.
trollhattan
@the pollyanna from hell: There is nothing more adorable than a burrowing owl.
Chatting with the raptor lady who does the raptor demonstrations at our zoo, she mentioned her cohort at another zoo who had his thumb crushed by an owl (great horned, I think) and said they had a more powerful grip than hawks.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Don’t get me started on bogs and fens.
JPL
Harry Reid. rip
Miss Bianca
@Tony Jay: You are one of the commenters whose words I read with the most joy. Happy Christmas!
@Peale: @Princess Leia: Oh, no!
MagdaInBlack
@Steeplejack (phone): Slough, anyone
South Chicago suburbs, near Willow Springs has one called “Belly Deep Slough.” The name has always fascinated me.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: This one was a Bard I think.
cckids
@WaterGirl: same is true of small humans
Steve in the ATL
COVID question: what do people do when they have to quarantine but have no resources for hotels and food? Is there any kind of plan for people in this situation?
MagdaInBlack
@Steve in the ATL: The basement. The attic. The garage?
Steeplejack (phone)
@MagdaInBlack:
Oh, dear, we’re making a morass of this whole topic.
I was today years old when I learned that geological slough is pronounced sloo or slow (rhymes with cow). I must have been misled in the past.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone): the slough of despond, Bunyan
NotMax
@Van Buren
Still swampy marshlands if NYC. Brooklyn – Queens – Staten Island
Also New York’s The Great Swamp isn’t all that far into the suburbia.
District of Columbia originally included a lot of swampland, one reason the site for the Capitol was a high point known as Jenkins Hill.
PsiFighter37
@Princess Leia: If only Chuck Schumer could be as iron-willed as Reid was. Nancy & Harry were a hell of a team from 2009-2011. Not passing carbon legislation was the only real failure of theirs.
zhena gogolia
@PsiFighter37: oh everyone complained about Reid just like they do about Schumer
raven
@raven: Barred
Jay
@Steve in the ATL:
it greatly varies from no help, to Social Services providing motel rooms, testing and food.
zhena gogolia
@raven: that did confuse me. The college? Shakespeare?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Harry Reid
God bless Harry Reid for delivering 60 votes for ACA (photo)
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack (phone):
@zhena gogolia:
More or less obligatory. The once-famous poem, Slough, by Sir John Betjeman:
hilts
@Peale:
Given these late breaking deaths, I’ve never understood why both the NY Times magazine and CBS Sunday Morning produce their retrospective obituary packages the week before the end of the year.
raven
@zhena gogolia: Owl
Mike E
My only “owl in action” experience was impressive, sitting on a suburban street curb at 9pm when all of sudden this massive Romulan warship de-cloaked, wheeling out of a driveway gap between two big trees… I’ll go along with the others’ reactions in how it silently gave me quite the jolt.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: Wow. That was…something.
persistentillusion
@MagdaInBlack: I’ve been there. (Used to live in Hinsdale.) Most amazing smell, not quite sewage, but definitely rotting things. Went in high summer, which may have explained much.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
It’s Hard To Be the Bard.
;)
MagdaInBlack
@persistentillusion: Once upon a time my commute took me down 45 ( Mannheim/Lagrange Rd) every day. Lots of wetlands in that area. Considering Chicago is built on a swamp, I wondered if that area is how it all looked at one time
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Rest in peace.
HeleninEire
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
?
CaseyL
@PsiFighter37:
@zhena gogolia:
My FSM, yes. It almost makes one wonder if maybe the flaw is not in the Democratic Majority Leader, but in the opposing Party.
trollhattan
Speaking of raptors, this image demonstrates why not to be the little predator at a rabbit diner.
raven
@MagdaInBlack:
Saganashkee Slough Woods
UncleEbeneezer
Did a scenic drive to Jefferson and Daingerfield with in-laws today. Jefferson TX is really charming though still pretty Trumpy. At Daingerfield we got BBQ that was delicious. But couldn’t help notice that the unmasked white ladies working there were very cold towards me when they saw my John Brown “Smash Racism” tee shirt and BLM bracelet.
Now we are having my wife’s delicious pan pizza (made in cast iron skillet) and guiding parents through season one of For All Mankind, which they are now addicted to ?
Sure Lurkalot
There used to be prairie dog fields nearby my home and thus foxes and coyotes. When the prairie dogs were eradicated, there went the coyotes and foxes. Now we have hawks and occasionally owls and we find bird feathers and rabbit fluff in the yard. They pretty much eat the whole animal they catch, bones and all. Circle of life, I guess.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: Yep. Exactly. Herding Democratic senators is a Sisyphean task.
Roger Moore
@Steve in the ATL:
Progressive and well run places provide some kind of quarantine location for people who need one. My sister managed a COVID quarantine motel for the King County (Seattle area) government, for example. In places that are either not progressive or not well run, people like that just have to do the best they can quarantining at home. It rarely works well, and is supposedly one of the reasons we’ve had a very high COVID rate here in the Los Angeles area. Crowded housing and communicable diseases are a nasty combination.
TupeloPhoney
@The Moar You Know: Barn owls love palm trees.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
You may recall that the original British setting of The Office was the Slough branch of whatever the Dunder-Mifflin counterpart was called.
MagdaInBlack
@raven: I lived In Melrose Park when I made that daily drive. Bunch of them down there. I’ve not yet, I’m ashamed to say, taken time to explore them. I say ” down there” because I’m “up here” in Arlington Heights.
Roger Moore
@PsiFighter37:
If only Chuck Schumer had solidly over 50 votes, like Reid did.
raven
@MagdaInBlack: mel roz. . .cozy pants an 3/4 length cabrera’s!
CaseyL
Swamps, marches, bogs – they’re all wonderful, interesting. Having one in a city strikes me the same way as having wildlife in a city: a bit surreal. In a good way.
Geminid
@Geminid: Correction: Virginia Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton represents the10th, not the 11th Congressional District. She flipped it in 2018.
TupeloPhoney
@zhena gogolia: doesn’t help. Where are they admitted to practice law? What’s wrong with “Striped”?
prostratedragon
@hilts: I was just reminded that in cartoons the old year is often depicted as the Grim Reaper. This year it really fits.
Roger Moore
@Van Buren:
I think Sungei Buloh in Singapore would count as “not remote”. Nothing in Singapore is genuinely remote, and Sungei Buloh can be reached by city bus.
MagdaInBlack
@raven: And down the street, Stone Park…where there seems to be a lot of interesting 24 hour businesses.
Kalakal
One night I was out walking, saw a Tawny owl, then a bit later it began hooting. Weird thing was instead of the sterotypical double hoot “t’witt t’woo” beloved of every English movie, tv show and book there was just “t’witt” followed by silence. It was really weird, I was mentally waiting for the second hoot and it never came, it was like it had been killed mid hoot. Then it repeated and repeated. Turns out it’s a call and response mating thing and the double hoot is actually 2 owls. What I heard was someone trying to get lucky. A very lonely and poignant sound.
raven
@Sure Lurkalot: Did you see “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”? There is a prominent scene in “The Gal Who Got Rattled” with prairie dogs.
(it’s not in the clip but, when the Indians attack their horses trip in the holes
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: Can you believe I have never seen The Office – the British *or* the American version?
Now that I have writ that down in black and white I am somewhat appalled at myself. A deficiency which *will* be remedied in the New Year!
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
Which I always heard in my mind as sluff. (I would have thought that my use of misled would have triggered something for you. ?)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Roger Moore:
/climbs on to hobby horse, again/
and those Dems included Petroleum lobbyist Mary Landrieu, Young Earther Mark Pryor, would-be chair of the official Senate Blue Dog Caucus Evan Bayh, Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy James Webb, Spiritual-Senate-Fathers-of-Joe-Manchin Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad, Bobby Byrd (’nuff said), proud stimulus shrinker Claire McCaskill, and of course, the Spite Monster himself, Joe Lieberman (and that’s a partial list)
UncleEbeneezer
We have a couple owls that hoot back and forth at each other in our hood. One night we went for a night walk and I had an led flashlight and heard something overhead. Shined light up and saw owl fly only 5 feet or so above our heads. Probably had a six foot wingspan. So cool!
Another Scott
@Omnes Omnibus: People are fickle. Senators, moreso.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Miss Bianca: I’m a big fan of both versions, but be prepared for some deep cringe humor, especially in the UK version, and Mindy Kaling’s US episodes
TupeloPhoney
@coin operated:
@Betty Cracker: Can’t be too careful; our pets are just another food source to these animals. When my Great Dane was c. 16 wks. old and already at least the size of a pretty big lamb, I was swimming in a lake in N. Minnesota and heard my German Shepherd X who was standing on the dock go totally berserk barking. Turned around in time to to see a massive bald eagle on final approach to size up the Dane to see if she would fit within the eagle’s Maximum Gross Take-Off Weight/Go-Around Minimum Climb Requirements. I think if my other dog hadn’t been screaming at it the eagle may well have decided to take a shot. Of course, they don’t have to carry off your pet to kill it, they only have to try — the grabbing alone is fatal.
No affiliation, financial interest, or experience, but I came across this and thought it was interesting — for a smaller dog of static size: https://www.coyotevest.com/ or https://www.raptorshield.com/
Miss Bianca
@TupeloPhoney: I’ve always planned to get one of those punk-rock coyote vests for my hypothetical Little Dog in the Big Mountains.
Salty Sam
Nah, he was just pining for the fjords…
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Salty Sam:
There were pine trees on each side of the road… ;)
planetjanet
@Geminid:
Spanberger is not actually in the 7th. Her house in Glen Allen moved to the 1st.
Geminid
@planetjanet: Yes. Spanberger will have to move if she wants to contest the new 7th as a resident. She has said she intends to. Reporters seem to assume she will.
Chris T.
@cope:
a big freakin’ owl glided about 15 feet in front of us, perpendicular to the direction we were headed at about 3 A.M. one morning. Never heard a thing.
Owls have Silent Feathers, so much so that people have studied them to see how they’re so stealthy. See, e.g., https://asknature.org/strategy/wing-feathers-enable-near-silent-flight/
Lymie
@Betty Cracker: If you use a crate you can actually have some moments of peace – the dog is happy and not doing anything terrible. I have had 10 week old puppies who easily go from 11pm to 6am sleeping in a crate. You need your sleep! You can put the crate by your bed if you are worried, but I have one also in the kitchen and put the pup in the slammer when eating – and I feed him/her in it so it is very attractive. I have yet another crate in the car so I can take them places….
TupeloPhoney
@Miss Bianca: They do look pretty cool, and would be cute on a little dog! :-)
Ruff the dog
Been attacked four times by owls. each time just out for an early morning run and bam! One time from the side (and my buddy saw it), three times from the back (one of those times it came again from the front; I had a great prey’s-eye view). As much as I love owls they can be jerks where my mousy brown hair is involved.
TupeloPhoney
@Ruff the dog: Yikes! Maybe you need to put some big fake eyes on the front and back of a hat. Makes me think of the time I saw the cutest baby owl at eye level on a tree trunk. I was looking at it from about 1m away, and I heard a very loud “Whoooo” from the very large Mama watching from a nearby perch. Middle of the day but plenty unnerving nonetheless. I got the message to shove off.