Im bitchy, I moan, I groan.....anyway.
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I was addicted to the show Meerkat Manor and bought the book about the show and meerkats. Apparently the meerkat males have huge balls because nature requires them to propagate with as many females as possible to keep the species going -- hence the big doo-da's. Maybe it's the same with squirrels. Animals that mate for life or have a hierarchy where there's a dominant male, the males have smaller ones since they don't have to be boinking and impregnating everything in sight. Or have lots of boy goo to compete with other boys' goo. Gawd, I can't believe I remember all this stuff! Does someone have a trauma to tell to get us off cajones?
Edit to add: And how old am I? I can't believe all the euphemisms I used! Geesh.
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I used to volunteer at a wildlife rescue center. I am a witness to the amazing talents of possums. Possums may look a bit scary but they really are smart and cool.
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This opossum below is not playing possum.
May his spirit find peace in another life.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/67500220/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
"Cremaster muscles." Protection for genetalia. Both male and female marsupials have them.
http://web.missouri.edu/~krausew/Histology/Home_files/opossum.pdf
Excellent pictures on web .pdf file above. Opossums can be made into pets, too!
Page 75. Cute baby opossum eating a June beetle
Page 33. "I said COFFEE!" (My personal favorite picture after the baby pic above.)
I woke up last night ( 4 a.m.) laughing at the idea of an opossum thinking something like "hoist the anchor up," before a skirmish and I KNEW I had to do some research.
Thank you, thank you, Connie07, konakat,and notself. I needed that laugh.
-sessna1
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All I can say is OH MY GOD!!!
I'm laughing my arse off...when we go down hill, we go down hill! Sorry dream...I have no idea why my mind went there...
Sessna...WTH, where could you even find a picture like that? **sniff** **sniff** I hate when animals get creamed by cars...it just seems so unfair ( I know, there are bigger unfair things to worry about)
I turned in my package today - woo hoo!! Now, all I have to do is pray, hold my breath, pray some more until the week of April 9th, that's when the notifications go out for those that are selected into this program I applied for. **sigh**
I also scheduled my surgery today, we have a green light for April 21st. Here's hoping the insurance company gives the pre-approval!
I plan to see 2 movies this weekend (since it's just rainy and icky out) a cop one with Richard Gere in it (he's a hot tamale if I do say so myself) and the new Matt Damon one called Green Zone. I can't wait, they both look so good!
I hope everyone has a suck free weekend...unless you are sucking down a tropical drink
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Navy....what surgery? Sorry I don't know.
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np Traci...I'm getting my ankle fixed, finally! I can't wait for my new bionic ankle, my doctor has a new high tech joint he's started using. I can't even imagine being able to walk 3 city blocks without gimping...it's so exciting, can you tell? LOL
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navygirl,
Best wishes on you ankle surgery. My husband had a subtalor fusion and it made such a difference in his life. I understand the pain you must be enduring. Your life will be so much easier after your surgery and recovery.
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Hi ladies...sorry to hear about your trials lately, and hope you all have a suck-free weekend.
Elizabeth ~ I particularly liked reading about the meerkat males and their big doo-das
...you're like a walking encyclopedia of little known facts.0 -
sessna1
Thanks for the pdf file. It brings back old memories of many sleepless nights caring for 35 gram babies. When they are that small they require feeding every two hours around the clock. The fatigue was incredible. I couldn't do it today, but it was wonderful watching them grow big enough for release.
Possums would rule the world but for the fact that their thumbs are on their back feet.
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That poor possum looked liked he "sucked it in" just in time to save his cajones. Too bad he can't use them now...
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I was always amazed at the number of people who would stop their car and check to see if there were babies in a mom's pouch. If there were, they would call animal control to bring the adult in and we would remove the babies from the dead mother. If the babies were large enough (>30grams) and were not on the dead mom too long, they would grow up healthy and be released.
I do not recommend that anyone pick up an injured animal unless they really know what they are doing and have protection from bites and scratches.
It is almost Spring, so this could be the time for baby bird tips. If a baby falls out of her nest, it is OK to put the baby back. Birds do not have a strong sense of smell and the parents will come back. Parents to not nest on the babies once the babies have feathers. Do not think that the babies are abandoned just because you do not see the parent.
Here is good information:
http://www.messingerwoods.org/babybirds.htm
During my time with a large wildlife center I raised over 150 baby House Finches. Most of them were kidnapped by well meaning people.
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Ok, I had a crappy week, and I just need to blow off some steam. Monday, I woke up with a rash on my upper body, where my bra meets my skin, and I thought, probably yeast due to the antibiotics I have been taking for the cellulitis from my lumpectomy/SNB. So, I had an extra serving of yogurt, but by the afternoon I was itchy all over, and when I got home from work and changed I was covered in spots. Off to the walk-in, where I was told it was an allergy to the antibiotic. Now I am taking double strength antihistamines, and thankfully the itching is gone, and the spots are fading.
So, I take the dog to the park on Wednesday, and while we are strolling the beach, someone broke into my car and stole all my credit cards, cash and driver's license out of my wallet. I didn't notice until later that afternoon when I went to pay for my pre-chemo haircut, and didn't have the money, or plastic, to pay my stylist. How embarassing. Rushed home to report the cards missing, and found out that the baddies had already charged over $700 to my cards! Arrgh! How dare they, don't they know that I have cancer!!!!!
I decided to check this board, and I'm glad I did. Thanks for the well hung squirrels, dead possums and general merriment. I'm also glad the week is over.
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dutchgirl, the posts on this thread normally aren't as rowdy as they've been lately. Must be something in the air.... (spring?).
notself, I'm one of those people who will slow down to see if there's any sign of baby possums near a road-killed adult. Once I found a road-killed mom possum, with half a dozen furry 3-inch babies. There were skid marks all around the crushed bodies of the babies. Someone had taken great pains to run over every one of them as they'd tried to crawl away from mom's body. Made me sick. OTOH, once I found an "orphan" baby possum under a tree in the back yard. It was one huge hissing mouth with bright eyes, big ears and lots of teeth. I put it in a box in the kitchen and was offering it possum-snacks (cat food) when mom showed up to claim her "orphan". The interaction between the mom in the tree outside the screen door and the baby, who could tell mom was out there, was priceless. I took the baby outside and he and mom were gone a few minutes later.
Usually, our posts here sound just like yours, dutchgirl. And, in response, we'll shout (in unison): THAT REALLY SUX!!!
Hugs...
otter
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Dutchgirl6, That is a bad week. At least you aren't responsible for the $700 and you have your dog to give you kisses.
Otter,
Some people really hate possums. I have a neighbor that shoots everyone he sees. I can't figure it out myself. Maybe my neighbor was a dog in a previous life because dogs hate possums too. I think I have some cat in me. Cats really like possums and my cat once tried to invite a wild possum into the house through the cat door. I think my cat wanted to share dinner with the possum. I put some cat food outside.
Opossums will eat dog food, but it''s not good for them. Make you wonder doesn't it?
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My barn cats often invite the possums for dinner- without my permission. While the young ones may be cute they are the prime carriers of EPM- a severe debilitating equine neurological disease which essentially destroys the horse's spinal cord. It's a horseowner's nightmare (no pun intended). There really isn't a proven cure. I really don't mind the possums so long as the population seems to be in control.
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Dear navygirl,
I am sorry. I did not mean to cause you distress.
This was posted on Google images. Note that I said my prayer over it right above the picture. I don't think it looks like it has babies in the pouch. I guess it caught my eye because we usually don't see them in one piece so posed on the double line in southern California. CSI:Hollywood, anyone?
-sessna1
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shucks, just lost my post, anyway......dutchgirl, you really have had a crappy week. Did the docs give you a different antibiotic? Is the cellulitis clearing up. Yes this journey does suk the big one!! Sure hope you don't have any further breaches to your identity.
gentle hugs....
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Sessna darling, it's fine! I never would have even thought about looking for babies, I'm a city girl from the start so some things would just no occur to me. I will be more aware in the future however! Otters story made me sad took, I don't know why people have to be so mean...
But, it was nice to see Otter's name
HI OTTER!!!A perfectly lazy day and now I'm headed off to bed...NO SUCKAGE ladies...the weekend will remain suckage free
XOXO
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Otter, I really don't mind the rowdiness. I think that sometimes we need to explore the dark side.
We don't have possums here in British Columbia, but my dog hates cats. Don't know why, but she goes berserk when she spots a furry feline within a three house radius of ours. Also, other dogs, but only when they are walking off leash past our house. Notself, although she doesn't give kisses, she is very supportive. And DH does. So, it's all good.
Suzie, I can't say for sure if the cellulitis has cleared up, I won't know until the allergy rash has completely disappeared. I hope so, I don't really want to take another antibiotic right now, my gut is still trying to normalize itself after the last one. I had just finished the two week course the day that the allergy reared its ugly head.
So far the weekend doesn't suck. Yay! Thanks for the hugs ladies.
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My dad has had possums in his (separate from the house) garage getting into his cat food (when they had cats) and I think even a skunk. I am not sure how they got rid of them. I didn't even think of looking for any babies if I saw one dead on the road.
Dutchgirl. I have gotten rashes from antibiotics and I know that they are not fun. When I was 11 I developed an allergic rash to penicillin after a severe kidney infection caused by undetected strep throat. All my doctors knew about the allergic reaction to penicillin when I had my surgery. They gave me Keflex when I had my bilat mast, 3 days after surgery I started breaking out, I didn't take the next dose and went to my ps that day. I showed him my arms with my spots and I told him that is what happens when I take penicillin, he said we didn't give you penicillin but keflex and I have never seen anyone break out like that from keflex. He gave me a script for a different antibiotic. Now I have added keflex to my list of allergies.
Sheila
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Otter ... your story made me sad too. I have a more uplifting one for you ... a client who when I had met her was at least in her eighties said when her husband was still alive this happened. One day on the way home he saw a cat in the middle of the road. He sped up intending to run over the cat. She reached over, shut off the motor and went out to get the cat. The cat had to stay on her porch. Husband would not let him in. Husband develops some problem with his legs and can hardly get around. Her would go out to smoke cigars and sit on the front porch - she did not allow smoke in the home. One night she looked out to see him petting the cat. She said "from that day on I didn't have any trouble from either one of them."
Notself ... our neighbor has 2 cats and a cat door. One night they must have invited a couple racoons in for dinner. She had left a full tray of brownies on the counter. The racoons eat all the brownies, threw them up on her kitchen floor and left.
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Oh Kathleen, the brownie story is too funny!!!! Really made me LOL.
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Hey ladies, I just found this thread and am already laughing! I have thought of starting one like this and now i dont have to!
I did the Susan G Koman Race for the Cure this weekend with a team of 18 women. And if one person tells me how GREAT i look and how I can REALLY PULL OF THE SHORT HAIR one more time...
I just happen to be blessed with gorgeous long blonde haired friends. It is awesome. Nothing like being the Butchy looking chick in pictures with your hot friends. I feel like i LOOK like that possum when i cant get my 2 inch long hair to cooperate!!!!!
Oh that felt good to get off my foobs!!!!
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Kathleen that's hilarious! I don't know what would make me more mad, that they ate my brownies or that they threw them up!! And the lady and her husband one is priceless! My ex-husband hated cats. We had a stray give berth to her kittens on our front porch. My husband wouldn't let me bring them in and a tom cat got to them while we were at work one day...needless to say mommy and her two survivors came in the house right then and there - hubby was told if he didn't like it he was more than welcome to sleep on the porch himself!
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welcome, trish, this is the best place to rant and rave. I know what you mean when people keep saying how good you look, I feel like they are just bs-ing me, and the ones with the big ta-ta's just make me want to gag, but on the other hand I fear for them bec a lump would be so much harder to find, I would think......
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TrishK...congratulations on doing the run. Wishing you lots of quick hair growth so you can catch up with your long haired friends
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kmccraw423,
Raccoons! They are as close to monkeys as they can be without being primates. We had to double lock the cages or they would escape. I locked myself in the cage by accident and thank goodness another volunteer happened by or I would have been patted to death by raccoons and their tiny little hands. They love to pat things.
You are lucky that all the raccoons did in your house was throw up. They could have reacted to the brownies with a different discharge.
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About the raccoons- I no longer have any problems with them- a few years ago while I was going through my real menopause a family of raccoons decided to move into the large tree next to my bedroom window. The babies were really cute- until they grew to the point where they would run around the tree at night and Mom would make noises "not from this earth." Sometimes another raccoon would visit and all H** would break loose. The noise was worse than nails on a chalkboard. Neighbors and others offered to trap or shoot-which was unacceptable to me. I did some research and found that raccoons will move on if you disturb their peace and quiet. So- for several nights I tried various methods of disturbing the peace- including using bobcat scent and other non-toxic things. Finally one night, having woken in one of those memorable sweats, I took a nice piece of revereware and clanged it on the tree a few times-I may have said a few things too- the noise stopped. They packed up and moved across the field the following day. A week later I happened to be speaking with my neighbor ( an older farmer) who lives about 1/4 mile away. He asked if I heard all the commotion last week- "some crazy women getting beaten up or something"- he said he called the police but they never came out as far as he knows. I decided not to tell him about my raccoon removal methods.
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Raccoons are very vocal. A hungry baby screams so loudly that he can make your ears hurt. When they are happy they make a purring, chirping vocalization. They make horrible pets and their poo is one of the worst smells in the animal kingdom with the Fox coming in as king of smells.
Never corner a raccoon. They are a tough species and raccoons are capable of killing dogs. Raccoons are a rabies reservoir and also carry a parasite that can be fatal to humans. We were extremely careful at the wildlife center. All raccoons were wormed and cages were cleaned with high pressure hoses that washed waste directly into the sewer.
If you have had resident raccoons, clean the area that they occupied with a strong spray garden hose as soon as they are gone. Never handle poo without wearing disposable gloves.
Raccoons are cute but they are wild animals.
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Thanks notself- my raccoons have been replaced by coyotes recently- we never see them- only hear them- at least the chickens don't go missing anymore.
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