Question: Is it possible to infect an animal and have them become a zombie?  Like, say a squirrel?  Because zombie squirrels give me the friggin’ heebie-jeebies.

Between mowing, trying to finish cleaning*, cleaning the household blasters and feeding Patrol Donkey and Sentry Goose**, it’s hard to find the time to scribble.  But I do have to comment on this video.  My comment is– these people vote; maybe we should rethink that whole universal franchise thing?

* I have books everywhere.  Because I have no book-case built yet.  But to clean everything else, I need to move the books.

** The neighbor’s farm went belly-up, and he sold everything but one donkey and his geese.  Donkeys dislike being alone, so Jake promptly figured out how to get out and began wandering the area.  He makes an excellent night watchman with his partner, the sole surviving goose.  (Oddly enough, a Chinese goose, not a Cotton Patch goose, even though he does weed…  and Cotton Patch geese are rare now?)  Some people hire a security company– I use nature’s own intruder alarm.

And Catalonia bans bullfighting.

What… the… hell?  Spaniards… giving up the dance?  (shakes head)  Next you’ll tell me that the Irish have closed the Guinness factory.  One thing I want to point out from Miguel’s take, though.

Bulls back then were humongous animals with a bad attitude, specially the Miura line who probably killed more bullfighters than all other lines combined.

This is happening across the cattle world– bigger, more capable animals are being “bred down” to a level that their owners can handle.  As a personal example, back when we kept cows on the family farm, we had a Beefmaster/Black Angus mix bull we called “Little Man.”  People would see the bull, hear the name (or vice versa), and think it was a purposely ironic name.  It wasn’t– compared to his sire, Little Man was tiny.

At a mere 1,600 pounds.*  Standing on level ground, Little Man was eye level with the barbed wire on a fence.  He could also wrap his tongue around the electric fence wire and absorb the shock with no visible reaction.  His sire, however, broadsided a Chevy and put it into a pond– “no gasoline engines” means exactly that when you’re driving through a cattle pasture…

*Please note that it wasn’t my family that bred down Little Man.  We got him from the owner of his sire, “Big Man.”  (Also known as Brontosarco Rex… King Thunder-Flesh).  1,600 pounds is nothing to sniff at– his offspring tended to be 50% heavier than their mothers– but he was… small compared to his sire.

Start the video and wait a few seconds. Okay, now go take a look at these hunters running from a bear. I rest my case.

I’m still wondering… between Picture #4 and Picture #5, the guy had to turn around with a bear right behind him… how did he do it?

Now, for added humor factor, videos and stuff:

Via Weer’d:

Via Whitebread:

Via MacBourne: shaving your kitty.

Thought exercise– two neighbors, in side by side houses, have rodent problems.  Neighbor A has a rat in his house, and Neighbor B has a squirrel in his attic.  How do they handle these problems?  Neighbor A will put out some traps to kill the rat, and Neighbor B will live-trap the squirrel and make the rodent someone else’s problem.  What would the reaction in the neighborhood be if Neighbor A live-trapped his rat and set it loose in the woods behind the school and Neighbor B used a nice trap like this for Mr. Tree Rat?

I’m guessing somewhere between “cold shoulder” and “torches and pitchforks.”

Now, why bring this up?  Because we have the same set of biases going on at a national level– we just got rid of a rat (Bush), but everyone still wants to feed the squirrel (Obama), even after he’s chewed the house’s wiring to crap.  A rodent’s a rodent, and a totalitarian is a totalitarian.

Meanwhile, the Defenders of the People’s Republic of Kalifornia can’t put down a deer at 5 paces without emptying a mag:

Oh, and the animal control officers there “were not trained to use the specialized [tranquilizer] guns.”  Man, good thing we train our public servants, right?  Imagine if we let mere mortals have these tools!  [/ Sarcasm off]

I feel sad for the deer–  not a single critical hit, and it couldn’t even lay down and die in peace.

*Elliott’s and Scrub Blueberries, not the Rabbiteye type.  Rabbiteye berries are the most tasteless rip-offs I’ve ever seen.

(H/T Uncle)

Pig hunting has three simple rules.  One, bring enough gun.  Two, bring enough people.  Three, keep a tree  in sight.

You don’t have to outrun the pig… just the slowest guy you’re hunting with…

I don’t know, but I think we’re about to find out.  If you’ll excuse me, I have to go pop some popcorn… hold my seat, I really don’t wanna miss this fight.

Seafood-

I’m not in flyover country… I live in an area with fish farms and the coast, so I can get fresh fish almost year round.  There are very few fish that I won’t eat (I’ve eaten shad before), but I do have favorites.  Catfish (oh, that’s a surprise, a Southerner liking catfish), including channel cats, bullhead, and flatheads.  Warmouth and bream are good eating, and a good catch, too… a small sub-pound warmouth can put up quite a fight, and I’ve seen both fish thrive in very shallow water.

Mullet is excellent eating, but you have to hunt for them… literally.  They’re herbivores, and are the whitetail deer of the fish world– ambush is the name of the game.  One guy in the back of the boat, oars out and gently changing direction as you drift, and one guy in the bow with the net.

Red Snapper– great when you can get it, but amberjack or grouper will do in a pinch (in Florida, grouper and snapper are almost totally commercial fish, due to our wildlife service).  Flounder are great, but tilapia are the best.  I’m not really a fan of crab or oysters, so, no info here.  (chuckle)