Twilight for the fishes, we say goodby to our great Clown Loach.

Gotta ban five-gallon buckets, for the children!

Not just pleasure-- large dogs especially can deter a subset of the creeps who would do kids harm, and even small dogs can warn of fire while they are sleeping, prowlers etc. 100+ lbs. of fearlessly loyal teeth, muscle and sinew is not to be sniffed at.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Amazing how many people are afraid of dogs... door bell rings, the three Dachshunds start barking... I open the door, they rush out... the "target" jumps backward three paces.

My automatic response to anyone I don't recognize is, "I'm not interested", so they beat it, grateful ;-)

But I did have one gal who tried the bit, "You're threatening me", to which I responded, "I'll do more than that, I'll arrest your ass and call the cops. You don't have a solicitation license do you?"

She ran.

...Jim Thompson

That big owl on the hill, that I've posted pictures of, scares me a bit.

He sat there and looked hungrily at the puppy, so I climbed up on the fireplace and waved my arms wildly at it.

He finally flew off.

So I sat back down at the umbrella table and continued sipping my wine.

A few minutes later he buzzed the deck so close I could feel the wind of the flap of his wings on my face :-(

...Jim Thompson

I get a very occasional "junk male"... love that phrase ;-)

But I NEVER see a Jehovah's Witness.

Must be about 30 years ago now... when I was young I would sleep late on weekends... now I'm up at dawn.

Three female JW's show up at about 8AM on Sunday morning and ring the door bell, waking me up.

I jump out of bed, thinking, "What the hell?"

Grab a towel and wrap around me (since I sleep in the nude), then answer the door.

There they stand.

As soon as I see their pamphlets I say, "Get off my property!"

Though I say it again, they don't budge.

So I drop the towel.

Watch 'em run!

What fun ;-)

They must maintain a national list... I've never seen another Jehovah's Witness, even though I haven't lived at the old address for eleven years ;-)

...Jim Thompson

My numbers are for the whole world.

Or by lightning. I find that "thousands per year killed" figure suspect too. It seems there are in fact < 20 per year for the USA. I am not particularly a dog lover, but I know they can give pleasure to lots of kids. Just like even more dangerous things like bicycles, tree climbing, swimming etc.

You are right to be concerned. An owl attacked a friend of mine and shredded his face pretty badly. Luckily he didn't lose his eyesight.

Mike Monett

Hello Roger,

And tens of thousands are saved by them when evil people took a hike after encountering some bared teeth and growls. Talk to your local police. One of the best protections against burglary and child abducters is a large loyal dog.

Then there is the psychlogical benefit. You should see how happy people are when we visit a nursing home with our big dogs. It makes their day. When we have kids over and they meet the dogs, they somehow forget their initial complaints about us not even having cable TV.

Regards, Joerg

Hello Tony,

Ours developed "joint mice", spiky irregularities in the right shoulder joint. This causes the bone surfaces to rub against each other in the joint. He was limping badly and I had to use my fall gear belt to hold his chest up when he went down a couple steps to the "pee area". The vet said it's either a medication with possible bad side effects or he just would have to live with it. And that he should lose weight.

So we put him on r/d diet, later kept him on w/d. Not exactly his favorite manna but he still eats it. He went from around 125 pounds to about 85. Also, he gets glucosamine pills every day. Now his limp is gone and he is one happy dog again.

Well, we also took in a Shepherd mix to rescue her from a not so favorable situation. She is much more agile and keeps him on his toes. That must help, too. Else he'd sleep 15+ hours a day.

Regards, Joerg

Hello Keith,

Not sure, I think the Blue has black, white and brown coat while Queenslands are black and white. Anyway, our mix looks almost like a Rottweiler except for a longer snout. With tail, of course, as we would never change what nature presented. Most people say he still has a puppy face at his advanced age. Anyway, it's a pretty dog. But when some sales folks come up the road and he stands there just looking they usually decide to forego their sales pitch ;-)

Regards, Joerg

Hello John,

It still happens. Not that we feed the wild foxes around here anything but one family returns every year to give birth and provide their kits a few months of a safe home. They must feel secure and welcome around us.

They even show off their newborn to us. The vixen often nurses next to the garage. I can start the car and drive away without them getting into a panic. As long as it's our cars, not with any others. In the evenings the adults take turns resting on a rock about 20ft from where we sit, listening to our conversations and then slowly dozing off.

Regards, Joerg

A Blue Healer is also known as an "Australian Cattle Dog". They're a small breed, perhaps 30lbs and maybe 15" at the shoulders. A friend had one and it was quite some handfull. They *run* until they're two-and-a-half. I can't imagine a Rottie with that kind of energy. ;-)

Good plan. I've never been afraid of a large dog, unless the poor thing was trained to hate people. If a big dog doesn't want me, I leave (withouth turning). ...not an issue. The little ankle-biters piss me off though. ...can't trust 'em. Napoleon complex, and all.

Hello Jim,

They can become dangerous. We have few owls but a family of turkey vultures with 6ft wing spans. When we moved here they buzzed my wife until one of them looked back, probably to see if he put a good scare into her. I yelled at him, not to scold but to tell him to watch out. Didn't work, he hit the TV antenna mast full bore. How embarrassing that must have been for the bird. Tumbled to the ground but before I was up at the driveway he took off again. No more buzzing since that event...

Regards, Joerg

I'm certainly not afraid of dogs. My first move would be to kneel and turn the back of my hand to them to sniff. If they react as expected we'd have a great time. OTOH, the only time I've been bitten was when the dingbat dog (a toy poodle) was in the arms of its mistress. The damned thing took a hunk outta my right arm as she let me in the house.

Ah, cute puppy! Wanna play?

We had a Springer whan I was a kid. That thing *hated* anyone in uniform, or was carrying a bag. Needless to say, it hated our regular mailman. We had no leash-law back then, so the dog wandered around, but normally stayed within a few hundred feet of our yard. One day my mother was at teh kitchen sink looking our over the front yard when the hated mailman came up. The dog was sleeping in the sun with its legs in the air. The stupid bastard walked off our sidewalk and kicked the dog in the ribs. He was surprised when she turned around and bit him. My mother called the postmaster and filed a complaint aginas the mailman. Interestingly the alternate mailman loved the dog. She'd tear-ass after him, he'd reach out and talk to her, and she'd excort him down the block playing.

Let sleeping dogs lie!

I read in sci.electronics.design that Jim Thompson wrote (in ) about 'Twilight for the fishes, we say goodby to our great Clown Loach.', on Tue, 5 Apr 2005:

You'll have to put up a big sign 'TANSTAAFL for OWLS'.

You are luck that he didn't leave a large present in your wine glass!

I had a physics-major buddy at MIT who would invite the Bible-thumpers in and debate them for hours.

Damned if he didn't fail out of MIT and then became a Baptist circuit preacher in Texas.

Then he became a lawyer, and now is a law professor at (IIRC) University of Houston.

When you think about it, doesn't that profession trail make absolute sense ?:-)

...Jim Thompson