INTERESTING TIMES

This is great news in my book. I was out at the Imnaha river in spring and there is one of the first packs reported to have pups. I saw no sign of them. Now it sounds like most of the known Oregon packs have pups this year, even the newly discovered pack. Wild carnivores on the rise! We now have 53 wolves in Oregon. The ranchers hate it of course, but hopefully we can reach some equilibrium between livestock and canines that everyone can tolerate. I wonder if there might be some way to keep wild canines at bay that is as elegant as moving lights to keep away lions. Of course it's hard to protect your bovines when they're wandering far and wide...like those cows all along the Yampa. Need a wolf network up there too, keep the ranchers in line.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/Wolves/index.asp
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/Wolves/wolf_program_updates.asp

This is the same piece of music as he used for the previous post, so if you hate the music, don't play it. Dick filmed this otter family fishing and eating their catch on the rocks behind his house. It's stuff like this that confirms for me that I want to live on the crick. Somewhere. Some gurgle or cascade, or even better, small clean river. But back to otters. I might get a chance to study otters this coming summer, and I was already interested. RIVER otters, not ocean, they are different. Know anything about them?

*created new tag for otters, all previous mentions not tagged

Shakti the ferocious feline is sprawled on one of my two desks, watching me sort through my papers. She is long haired with a white chest and belly, and black and gray mottling over her back and sides, with a huge coon tail. She is satisfied as long as she is in the middle of everything. I have had to knock her off the desk a couple of times when she went to play with the orange flowers in the vase. She usually manages to upend my flowers, but I am learning to use vases that won't tip over. The current floral arrangement is particularly gorgeous, lean, long and assymmetrical, arising from an amber vase with a round bulb of a base. Flowers bring me joy, as does the kitten, when she is not in the process of killing something.
( stuff )

This morning Shakti on Four Paws caught another grey bird, which went in the trash. Then I went on a hike and was gone for about 3 hours. When I got home she had a dead red-headed bird, and fresh grey bird, still fighting. She would pin it to the carpet, and then let go the same way she does a toy. Released, the bird would take flight for the window. The window was only open a crack, and because the feathered creature possessed only a birdbrain, it would fly into the glass every time. Shakti the huntress would jump up and nail it against the glass, and take it in her teeth back to the carpet. I witnessed two cycles of this vicious game before I figured out the solution. I opened the window all the way, and the next time the kitten let the bird go, it flew out the window and left her stunned.

Moments later I had recovered her collar with the bell from my side table drawer. I had to let the collar out a couple of inches from the last time that I had it on her. She hates it. Now she is trying to get it off. She will, too. I am sure that I will have to find a more secure collar for this kitten. She is born to hunt in silence.

I do not mind her huntress nature, but I do not enjoy the scene of carnage in my room. She must have tormented the red-headed bird for a long time, because its blood was smeared on my kitchen floor, and there were feathers EVERYWHERE. I have vacuumed twice today already. Shakti is pissed. She will get madder, and she will never accept wearing a bell. Is there a better solution?