Love/Hate

I enjoy a love /hate relationship with wildlife, all wildlife. As a child, I couldn't wait for Saturday morning to come so I could watch my favorite cartoon. I think it started my love of wildlife. Imagine for yourself, a muscular flying mouse fighting evil every Saturday morning, Mighty Mouse. I'm not sure how people would react to Mighty Mouse today, people aren't used to a mouse flying up into the face of evil using his little mouse fists and punching the living (construction language) out of evil. I can hear him now singing, "Here I come to save the day!"

I think it started to change with that chubby, tan bear named Pooh. Pooh didn't punch anyone in the face or do anything to stop evil. I was OK with Pooh, however, I would have enjoyed him more if they had called him by his (construction language) name if they were going to name him something like Pooh.

Pooh had me believing bears were soft and chubby. Pooh has become something I try not to step in. It wasn't until I saw the "Night of the Grizzly" that I saw what real bears can do. Sadly, 'Ol Satan (the bear from Night of the Grizzly) didn't fight evil so I would need to put him in the "hate" category.

As I said I developed a love/hate relationship for wildlife that I have carried to our ranch home. I have had the pleasure of seeing a mountain lion mother and three cubs just a mile down the road from our house. I love that. When a (most likely) mountain lion killed and carried away, SOX, our llama, I hated all mountain lions. I have seen bear(s) less than one hundred yards from my front door. I love that. I'm not sure if a bear didn't kill YANK, our last llama. I will reserve judgment on bears but I do remember 'Ol Satan.

We have had a bobcat living in our barn. I didn't see a downside to that, put that in the love category. It didn't stay with us very long, so that would need to be hate. I'll explain in a minute.

Foxes are cute little bundles of red fur. If they are miles from our home, I love them. If they are killing chickens in my yard, I hate them. I do like foxes in my yard if the bobcat in the barn is killing them. I love some killing, not all, but some.

Coyotes, there is not much to love about coyotes. They look nice attached to some of Elaine's garments, but not if they have been killed by mountain lions. See why I get confused?

Mice, ground squirrels, voles, moles, rabbits, and rats. I've seen hundreds, maybe thousands. On the road, in the yard, and sometimes in the house. I will admit, they don't bother me unless they come into our house. Truthfully it is a bigger problem for them than for me. They don't last very long. Did I mention that is only the mice? Oh, I did shoot a Norwegian rat in our window well once. I tried to get him to leave, but he turned it into a game and dared me.

This past week despite my love for Mighty Mouse, I have decided that rodents, all rodents have joined the side of evil. Elaine and I headed for town in her SUV and the car would not steer. Oh, it steered, but I needed every bit of my massive biceps to turn the steering wheel.

The auto mechanic informed us the wiring for the power-assisted steering had been eaten by mice. I guess they tasted like cheese. I'm telling you rodents moved from love to hate. Sorry, Mighty Mouse, but get your friends in line.

I guess I should apologize because I haven't written about yarn, Well, we have yarn and you need yarn, so?

Thanks for your time, God Bless, Love ya

Our crazy lives!

Monner