Bits and Pieces

A friend and I went to a local park today for lunch.  There was a family nearby that set up and dished out everything on their picnic table, then abandoned everything while they went to play on the swing set for a while.  Shortly after they left, a raven flew in and helped itself to their lunch.  It opened up their sandwiches and took whatever was between the bread, and it tossed food in all directions before leaving.  We wondered if we should call them back, but they were way on the other side of the park.  Then, they came back after the raven had left, sat down and started to eat.  I don't think that they realized their lunch had been tampered with (I guess having food strewn in all directions isn't that unusual when you're a family with three very young kids).   We debated about telling them that their food was contaminated with raven snot, but opted to stay quiet.

The roofers have finally started the final stage of the roof work.  Although they started earlier than I expected, it's taking much longer than I expected.    I'm sure I'll be happy with the finished project when they're done, and it's not just because I don't like living in a construction zone.  It's living with dogs in a construction zone.  As I mentioned earlier, the dogs' pen has had to be tarped while they're working on the roof.  I don't want them to learn to potty in my main yard, so I've been taking them on leashed walks multiple times a day.  Also, Cotton tends to have panic attacks if his world is changed too much.  He's been spending his days at my parents house, which means that I'm driving across town four times a day to drop him off and pick him up.  On top of that, he's getting spoiled with all these leashed walks (there's no fenced yard at my parents' place either, and he's novel enough that they're taking him for multiple walks every day).   Now, the few times that I've tried uncovering a portion of the pen for him to use, he has refused.  He's now convinced that he can't pee unless he gets to go for a walk first, and there's been multiple times this week that he's held out for 12+ hours.  The Dude's gonna be in for a rude awakening when the roof is done.


There's been a rogue beaver who has set up camp in the local dog park.  It must have babies in the nest, because it has attacked about 7 dogs while they were in the pond there.  One husky died.  There's been a big debate about whether the city should trap/kill the beaver or relocate it.  Neither are ideal because there's no way to know which beaver in the colony is the aggressive one, and beavers are so territorial amongst themselves that relocating it  - into what will almost certainly be another beaver's territory - will almost certainly result in it having to fight to the death.    After much thought, the powers that be came to the correct conclusion and decided that people should either stay out of the park with their dogs, or keep them on leash.  Once the kits grow up, chances are really good that the colony will conclude that they hadn't picked a very good location to call home and move on.

This decision seemed to have received acceptance and kudos from most of the locals, but then some jackass took it upon himself and shot one of the beavers.    You wouldn't believe the outrage.  Forget that it's illegal on so many levels; people (including me) are pissed off that somebody would be that stupid.  Sure, they may have gotten their rocks off, doing away with an animal that *may* have hurt a number of dogs while defending it's home and (likely) babies.  Except.   There's an estimated 12 beavers in that colony.  How could they possibly know if they got the right one?

There's a demonstration planned in front of the city hall on the weekend to show solidarity against this senseless act.  I'm not normally one for demonstrations, but I'm thinking about going.  At some point, people have to learn not to be so selfish.  Access to a dog park is not an entitlement, and there's no reason why people couldn't limit their dogs to leashed walks or other parks for a few months.   There's no need for killing an innocent animal like that.