tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post1809360295972823195..comments2024-02-11T15:29:31.409-05:00Comments on Richard's Pretension: Living the WildlifeRichard Bellushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108081864942272619noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post-23140630215374467542012-11-05T12:27:57.905-05:002012-11-05T12:27:57.905-05:00Yes, I think that is best.Yes, I think that is best.MBorsinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post-24856668094313427772012-11-02T19:09:36.438-04:002012-11-02T19:09:36.438-04:00That doesn't surprise me. Domestic cats can be...That doesn't surprise me. Domestic cats can be very territorial.<br /><br />As for the wild dog, I suspect that's a story I'm better off learning second hand, so I'll take your word for it.Richard Bellushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10108081864942272619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post-69454155315033584702012-11-01T13:17:29.263-04:002012-11-01T13:17:29.263-04:00For all his wildness the African Wildcat, Felis si...For all his wildness the African Wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica, doesn't mix well with Felis catus. Where they share the same farm yards in Africa the Wildcat soon has to move away from the agressiveness of the common house cat. <br />No so the African wild dog....now he is a whole other story.Borsinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post-14406480035336962852012-10-16T11:26:27.421-04:002012-10-16T11:26:27.421-04:00You have a point. They turn up in most full length...You have a point. They turn up in most full length Heinlein novels, including one titled The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. Then for those who like their kitties big, there are invisible lions in James H. Schmitz' The Lion Game and the conquest-loving tiger-like Kzin of the Kzin Wars series edited by Larry Niven. Leaving scifi aside, for no real reason other than humanizing the aging detective (with an age-inappropriate girlfriend) in Jack Ketchum's The Lost, a crime novel of sorts, the detective takes in a stray cat, whose point of view is included.Richard Bellushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10108081864942272619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post-35835075622674470842012-10-16T00:32:41.162-04:002012-10-16T00:32:41.162-04:00Well its a well known fact that all writers must h...Well its a well known fact that all writers must have cats, it helps with the imagination. H.P. Lovecraft loved his cats and even put them into his stories. His short story, "The Cats of Ulthar" is all about why you never ever kill a cat. And his surreal saga "Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath" has whole sequences with cats flying to the moon. This is where all cats go when they disappear for a while. Our cat Hobbes (named after the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" acts more like Calvin than his namesake. He's a feisty little tabby, but he keeps me company when i work from home. Roman J. Martelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09545497713474664555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post-27907189927303052782012-10-03T17:24:11.887-04:002012-10-03T17:24:11.887-04:00We share our homes with more creatures than we gen...We share our homes with more creatures than we generally acknowledge. I left out stories of squirrels, mice, and a gopher... and that's just from the Class Mammalia. As for littler critters, I actually deliberately set Daddy Longlegs (harvestmen, not Pholcids -- the nickname is used for both) loose in the house because they eat other bugs and don't spin webs. Richard Bellushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10108081864942272619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post-25638696395969125502012-10-03T02:22:21.462-04:002012-10-03T02:22:21.462-04:00Sounds to me like your home would have made a grea...Sounds to me like your home would have made a great topic for an episode of our old childhood TV favorite, "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" with Marlin Perkins!<br /><br />Give Mini the Nobel Prize for Puddy Tat Wisdom cause she knows not to trek far from "her" back door perchance the neighborhood mutt espies her. At the right time, I'll betcha you can catch sight of physics equasions floating above her noble little noggin as she works the problem of moving her plumpness x yard length x dog speed/anger. Workin' it, she's aware that if you aren't nearby, there's no one to open the door and "Open Sesame!" is an exercise in futility.<br /><br />The cool Daddy-O, Maxi, is the typical Tom cat that's movin' and groovin' checking out where the action is--namely, checking out the lounging perch of Pussy Galore's window sill.<br /><br />Your suburban zoo reminds me of an event in my childhood that you might understand. Living in an old, Victorian home, I awoke in the wee hours of the morning with a parched throat. Staggering from my bedroom, I made my way through the house and down the narrow service hallway to the kitchen. While still in a half-sleep funk, I stood at the sink quenching my thrist and studied moonglow across the yard. Suddenly, my feet felt the full heft weight, fur and claws of a creature. Like a bolt of electricity shocking me awake, I realized my cat, Boo Boo, was outside and this "ain't" her! Although the house was definitely haunted, I didn't consider ghosts felt like a 15 lb turkey atop my foot with fork-tine claws clutching my calf. Scared stiff, I slowly lowered my head to catch a glimpse of the "thing" on my bare feet. There, captured in the moonlight, not to mention emblazoned into my terrorized brain, were two beady, reddish glowing eyes, a mouthful of fine, sharp teeth that delivered the obviously P O'd snarling, hissing attitude of a huge gopher rat. (He had no right to be angry 'cause I wasn't sitting on his foot--he was sitting on mine!!) In disgruntled slo-mo & as if he was angry that I interrupted him, he sauntered under the table for refuge. In response, I ran screaming (a/k/a banshee) through the house to the bathroom wherein I bathed my entire body, scrubbing my feet and legs raw dousing them with anything I could find--from alcohol to Comet Cleanser. <br /><br />Thoughts of the Black Plague ran rampant in this child's mind for days!! The thought of an icky, nasty, germy vermin was more than I could stand. It ranked right up there with the time a bat flew from the chimney of my bedroom!! And that, gave me terrible nightmares of Dracula for months! After all, I gained my Dracula & vampire expertise from my avid participation in the "lectures" provided by Hammer horror films aired every Saturday on TV!<br /><br />Waking everyone on the house, my Uncle checked the kitchen, but the vermin had vamoosed. Never leaving food out, who knows what aroma caught the attention of his gopher rat olfactory. His entrance and exit was never found. However, I understand they can fit through the most impossible crevices and old, Victorian homes are full of nooks and crannies.<br /><br />Concerned that my cat, Boo Boo, might confront this King Kong sized vermin and lose the fight, we (Boo Boo and I) spent days searching the dark corners of each room. Amazingly, my cat caught scent (RETCH!) of the beast which brought out her intensity to hunt. You could call it a "rat and cat noir thriller."River Misshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13408316436003408975noreply@blogger.com