“This squirrel is inadequately afraid of humans! Squirrel, I am a threat to you! We are enemies! Please get off my bench! Oh, god! Oh, god! Don’t touch me—oh, god!”
Okay, it’s as if I were a kid again. I’m watching a black and white science fiction movie on TV. This one was made in 1957 and is called The Night the World Exploded. The hero, a scientist, is flying with some air force types to check out a newly formed volcano. On the plane, they are sitting in regular chairs at a card table. The radio operator is on a folding chair. I hope it was a smooth flight. Our heroine, call me Hutch, froze on a ladder going into a cavern. Our hero talked her down by asking if she wanted her mommy and daddy. I’d have punched him. He is now, of course, in love with her, and yes, they did save the world, but it was a close call.
Baby spawn has much to learn. Late yesterday afternoon I heard Gracie prancing about the deck. The spawn was in a tree near her, and Gracie was trying to figure out how to get to it. I brought Gracie inside. A few hours later, I let her out and then heard all sorts of noises. I went out on the deck to check and saw Gracie in the backyard. She had the spawn cornered and was picking it up in her mouth then putting it back down. I went to save the spawn. I was barefoot and was walking in Gracie’s poop part of the yard carefully picking my way through the mine field. I got to Gracie and she took off away from me. The poor spawn ran only a little bit up a tree. It was soaked and mewing. I didn’t see any bites, just saliva. Gracie came to me finally, and we went into the house. That night I took her out twice but on a leash. This morning I checked before Gracie went out, and the baby was gone. I only hope that three run-ins with Gracie were enough for it to stay out of the yard.
I’ve never seen a baby pigeon. I figure they just arrive full-grown, and it’s the same with mourning doves. Baby squirrels, though, have been around the last couple of years. Before that, I would have assumed they too arrive full-grown though in the pine trees are old squirrel nests, huge nests built between branches. Last year I saw a mother squirrel trying to wean her baby. She kept lying on the branch so the baby had no access. The Gracie targeted baby squirrel is on its own, no mother in sight. I think there should have been one more lesson: how to avoid a dog!
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: Gracie and the squirrel, hero and heroine fall in love
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
September 14, 2013 at 11:53 am
I would run through poop to save a cat, but a baby squirrel? The cat I saved was someone’s pet, squirrels are just varmints. They carry diseases and are just a royal pain. I am not even sure what purpose they serve. Migrating birds are also a pain because they always aim for my car to take a flying crap. Bird poop will ruin the finnish on your car if not cleaned off quickly. I think they take aim at my car right after I leave the car wash. Birds do keep the insect and snake population under control.
Bad science fiction movies from the 1950s are a hoot. One of my favorite movies is “Ed Wood”. His infamous movie “Plan 9 From Outer Space” is now a cult classic. When I was a kid, in the 1950s, those terrible movies would scare the hell out of me and then give me nightmares for weeks. To this day I will not watch any of the remakes of “War of the Worlds” because the 1953 movie scared me much. I know, I’m a wimp 🙁
Still no rain, but the high temperatures are slowly coming down into the mid 90s.
September 14, 2013 at 12:46 pm
Bob,
I did not want my dog killing anything. She never has, and I wasn’t going to let her start. I know how squirrels carry more diseases than rats, but this was a scared, mewing baby, and I wasn’t going to stand there and watch Gracie kill it in playing with it.
I have several bird feeders off my deck, and I love sitting out there watching the different birds.
Plan 9 is hysterical. It was Bela Lugosi’s last movie. He died during filming and Ed replaced Bela with Ed’s dentist, much taller than Boris.
When you’re a little kid, you’re allowed to be scared.
Coolish day today.
September 14, 2013 at 12:01 pm
So there is a soft spot for those small spawns after all 🙂 Still I think it was kind of nice of Gracie not to just chew the little one, Nova and Sune would have, Orvar and Hector would just carry it around like their old grandma did 🙂
Baby pigeons are truly ugly 🙂 I’ve seen a few and I’m always amazed that they actually turn out quite nice as grown ups 🙂
I watched the two first episodes of Defiance yesretday, isn’t it a bit too predicatble? The rough hero seems to have a heart of gold after all and saves the day, the Romeo and Juliette couple, Lady Macbeth (the aliens wife) plotting in the background so that they can take over the mines when the Romeo and Juliette couple get married and so on 🙂 🙂 🙂 But I’m not sure if the grumpy hero is in love with the Mayor or her sister the Madame at the brothel.
I didn’t get surprised that he became the sherif and I wasn’t surprised that he went to the place to fight, it would have been funnier if he actually started working at the brothel 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
September 14, 2013 at 12:23 pm
My 18 pound dachshund would kill a spawn in a New York minute. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, New York minute, it means ultra extremely fast. The big ones run around the roof top and the top of my eight foot fence and tease the dog unmercifully. Occasionally he does kill some kind of bird and brings us the remains for our adulation. Dogs are hunters and birds are prey.
September 14, 2013 at 12:50 pm
Bob,
Gracie just plays with the animals she finds. They have included a mouse, a possum, chipmunk and a squirrel.
Not all dogs are hunters.
September 14, 2013 at 12:49 pm
Christer,
Only a soft spot for a baby facing impeding death by Gracie. It seems as if Gracie thought she had a toy!
I never see pigeons around here. My mother used to get them at her bird feeders so we called them country pigeons as she lived in a town, not the city where we usually saw them.
I watched it for a while then found it boring. Maybe I’ll check in later to see if it is any better.
Have a wonderful evening!
September 14, 2013 at 2:54 pm
Hi Kat,
Poor baby spawn. It really should learn from experience that large critters are generally not good for it’s health.
I had a couple of baby spawns crash into my bedroom through the crappy ceiling in there. They were black spawns. Very cute. They spent the night under a cabinet in the corner and then they got booted out in the morning. One of them moved into a bird house in the oak tree up the road. I haven’t seen her lately but she would be about 5 years old now.
Baby pigeons start looking like the adults pretty quickly after they have hatched. They just can’t fly yet.
I have never seen a baby mourning dove either. The immatures ones look pretty much like their parents, though.
It’s a bit cool here. Rocky and I went to the lake about 10 AM. The wind was pretty stiff and cool. A nice change. The clouds are hanging in there, though. Now and then the sun peeps out. We met another dog there and Rocky had a great little run and play session. Now he’s sleeping. Always a plus. 🙂
Enjoy the day.
September 14, 2013 at 3:42 pm
Hi Caryn,
I think it must be okay as it was gone. It really looked wet, not hurt.
My hope is this one, after 3 run-ins, has learned its lesson and will stay out of the yard. It was really small.
I swear pigeons and doves are really born adult. I can’t believe that I wouldn’t have seen one after all these years.
Cool here too. I shut some windows. The back door is open for the dog, and I can feel the cool air coming from there.
I’m going out so Gracie will be napping in her crate. I have someone coming later to let her out.
Have a great evening!!
September 14, 2013 at 7:58 pm
Probably off to tell the other young spawn of Gracie the Jabberwock with eyes of flame, whiffling through the tulgey wood and burbling all over it….
September 14, 2013 at 10:56 pm
Beto,
This is near a Lewis Carrol!!
September 15, 2013 at 11:37 am
do you have any folk-rrock in stock? ex:seals & croft,joy of cookin, or similar from the early 70’s ???
September 15, 2013 at 12:45 pm
GnuFool,
A few stray Seals and Croft, and I’ll have to check to see what else.