Unnature, black in tooth and claw

[perlmonger]

I was just emptying the dishwasher when I heard a familiar shout. PoD's home.

This time he had company...



The creature was lightly killed prior to Drum bringing him in, so I thought I'd document the event rather than attempt rescue of that which was beyond rescue: there are a few more photos here.

As an aside, I'm told the squirrel are "vermin" - is this congruent with some plants being "weeds"? that is, are "vermin" just animals that happen to be where the person so labelling them doesn't want them to be?

Comments

[rusty76.livejournal.com]

What beautiful cats!

'Lightly killed' - is that the mammal equivalent of 'But mom, I only knocked one leg off! Make the cricket move some more!'?

[perlmonger.livejournal.com]

What beautiful cats!

Indeed. Beautiful as only the truly psychopathic can manage...

'Lightly killed' - is that the mammal equivalent of 'But mom, I only knocked one leg off! Make the cricket move some more!'?

"Put new batteries in the frog; g'wan, g'wan, it's stopped screaming." Yes, that sort of thing (except that the frogs are usually playing dead and can safely be repatriated to the stream or the pond on being rescued).

The reference is actually from an ancient Monty Python sketch:

"We use only the finest baby frogs, dew picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in finest quality spring water, lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope and lovingly frosted with glucose."

[arse: I'll get my tags right this time, shall I?]

Oh lord ...

[ulygan.livejournal.com]

Is it something in the melanistic gene? I just know that we have this to look forward to once PoD MkII starts going out, his prey instinct is very evident already. Of course, in his case it will be rabbits - no squirrel here.

The verminous tag - I think only greys are "vermin"? I don't believe I have ever seen reds classed as vermin, only as endangered. So maybe they are vermin because of the non-indiginous-squee*ing-out-the-native thing. I think they have fleas but I'm not at all sure that they carry pestilence or disease.So yes, greys are weedy squirrels I s'pose.

There are reds down in the valley but I think not even Treacle would roam 10 miles to find them. Phew! (but just try him out on a raw prawn... and don't try to take it from him or you're dead meat!)

[*]I really must fix that key - the one that you can't even describe as being *ig *ag shaped or as being a *ed, unless it is functioning. (This footnote is self-referencing.)