More Wildlife On The Prowl!

It's beginning to be like some kind of Twilight Zone around here. At the rate I'm going I'm thinking I should apply for a grant or something and become a wildlife preserve! Here's the latest....



When I met the deputy in my driveway I told him that Lucy had treed a RAT! Well once he shined his mega wickedly bright flashlight on the critter it was almost a rat, but not quite. Aren't his ears weird? I've never seen a possum up close like this one!



The deputy, who I call "Trouble", has been my hero on more than one occasion over the years! Thanks, Trouble, for taking that critter off my hands! Lucy might never recover. She wanted to kick some ass and there was no good end in sight. The possum couldn't get up any higher or down where he could run away. Lucy wasn't going to give up the hunt until forced to. She was jumping as high as the top of the bush the possum was in and barking like she was possessed....




Obviously the word on the bayou is that it's fun to visit my place and see the old lady jumping up and down shrieking along side the little white dog who's having conniptions in her own right! I'm better than HD TV to the creatures of the night!

Feel Better Fast Laws Aren't A Good Idea

I'm so sorry for the family and friends of Deputy Constable Jason Norling who was so tragically killed and is being buried today.

In both the Houston Comical and KHOU's report it has been said that the driver of the SUV that hit him was "thought to be using a cell phone" at the time and that has sparked an effort by the family to ban the use of cell phones while driving. That's just a feel better fast solution to a problem that has no solution if people don't have any common sense.

We already have the law that wasn't obeyed saying the driver of the SUV was suppose to slow down and give the deputy and the driver a wide berth. (A new state law requires motorists to switch lanes when they see an emergency vehicle along the side of the road. If they cannot switch lanes, they should slow down 20 miles below the speed limit. But that apparently did not happen this time, according to authorities.) Enforce THAT law please don't make another one.

Better to make it policy that people have to acknowledge the officer and then be instructed to drive to a place of safety off the highway entirely. Although, come on, there is no place of safety if it's your time to go. Now I'm the first to tell you, I don't know bean one about how to conduct a traffic stop, etc., but look more closely at the procedure and not at the millions that don't run over LEOs conducting traffic stops. People ought to have sense enough to pull over and yak on their phones without trying to do multi-tasking, but they don't. I don't. You don't. The deputy most likely didn't either. You can't stop people from taking and driving any more than you can stop them from drinking and driving. You can catch some of them and punish them, but you can't catch them all.

I hope and pray that this senseless death helps to educate some people about both the new law pertaining to emergency vehicles on the side of the roadway AND how dangerous it is to be distracted by something so easy to avoid, but no law will ever make it not happen again and again.

My biggest fear about the slow down or change lanes law is the danger of a rear end collision just trying to comply with THAT law. People, myself included, drive to fast and follow too closely and I'm pretty sure there are laws about THAT on the books too.

I apologize if this post offends anyone for any reason. I had to get it off my chest and I mean no disrespect to Deputy Norling's memory or his survivors. There's not a day that goes by that I don't worry about my friends that wear a badge and pray for their safety whether they are engaged in traffic stops or sitting behind a desk with their feet propped up OR talking on their cell phones while driving around the mean streets.

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Lucy And Ricky Together Again!

Well as you may know, my new adopted dog's name is Lucy. I tell people I named her that so that when I come home I can say "Lucy, I'm home" in my best Ricky Ricardo imitation. Well tonight RICKY came to visit with LUCY and he thought he really was home!




We were out for our walk and saw something run across the street and up my driveway and then up in my tree. At first I thought it was just a cat, but then it dawned on me that it ran "funny" for a cat. My neighbors were backing up and down in their driveway and they called out to me to be careful because it was a raccoon! When they got home it was in their driveway and ran under one of their parked cars.




It never ceases to amaze me just how much wildlife is right outside my door! No wonder Lucy cries for what I considered no good reason when we go outside at night. I figured she smelled cat tracks or even the possum that likes to poop on my porch. I had no idea a full grown raccoon was on the prowl! That thing probably weighs twice as much or more than Lucy does.





Hopefully I terrorized it enough with the flash on my camera to make it find new hunting grounds or another treetop motel. It probably scared it to death too that I was jumping around saying "sh*t, sh*t" for a good 15 minutes.

Biggio's Farewell - Favorite Photo

This guy was my kind of fan! And this is one of my favorite photos that I took Sunday, September 30, the day that Craig hung it up, cleaned out his locker and took home a piece of all of our hearts.

It was a sad day for the Astros fans, but we'll always have our memories of the way the game was played by Craig Biggio and that we were lucky to have witnessed it!