02/20/20 – Where To Wait

Spacetrawler, audio version For the blind or visually impaired, February 20, 2020.


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2020-02-20-spacetrawler3b

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Good boy, Ruddock.

20 Comments

      1. Jim Campbell

        Yes, this one.

        “I was coming in with you three, to wait for Emily.”

        Valid alternative,

        “I was coming in with the three of you, to wait for Emily.”

        Ethnic* alternative…(?)

        “Isa comin in wissa tree’a usa. Waitin’ see Emily.”

        *Sorry. My Gungan Basic is not great.

          1. Gregg Eshelman

            Adit works. That’s a horizontal entrance tunnel to a mine. Aditing a script would be tunneling into the mine of your thoughts to dig out the story.

  1. Pete Rogan

    Stangor’s last comment made me realize how close to threats most romantic overtures really are. But if I go down this road we’ll run into the ‘consent’ bollard again and that’s really no fun.

    1. War Pig

      With coyotes it is often one and the same. What starts as a fight can end up breeding and vice verse. Interesting little canines. They think and plan strategically. One will lay down in the back yard and pretend it is dead. Coyote number two will hide. When small domestic dogs come out to check out the “carcass” the faking coyote jumps up and the hidden coyote comes out and they kill and eat/carry off the small dogs (or cats).

      They tried that at a neighbor’s house but messed up. He had just taken in a rescue bull mastiff. When the little dogs were attacked, here came the dreadnought and rather quickly extirpated said coyotes before they could make it to the 4 foot tall fence. My neighbor decided to keep the mastiff instead of fostering him until he was adopted. Hasn’t had a bit of trouble with coyotes since. They take one sniff where the mastiff has marked and just go on down the line.

      1. Pete Rogan

        I live in a part of the country not known for coyotes, but we had an incursion and one, maybe two of them were going through house pets like a house afire.

        I kept my cat indoors. He didn’t like that. He was a Bombay tom, solid black, and seventeen pounds at fighting trim, but I didn’t think he’d be a match for the invaders. Then he got away from me at the open door and disappeared into the dusk.

        I feared the worst. Until he showed up at dawn the next day, unmarked and hungry. I figured he had been lucky.

        ….until the newspaper announced some days later that the attacks on pets had stopped for some reason. And that’s when I realized the coyotes had probably crossed my Bombay’s path in the night. I know him, he doesn’t back away from a fight, and he always wins. (He would bring me rabbits sometimes) I felt a little sorry for the coyotes after that. They never expected the silent night to suddenly grow teeth and claws and fall on their backs. I’m still sorry I didn’t get to see the engagement. It must have been a pip.

        1. Meran

          Funny you’d use “pip” there.
          I had a cat, very much like the one you describe. Born of Maine barn cats, rumored to have a lynx as sire, Pippin, a b&w “tuxedo” cat, from a polydactyl litter (he didn’t get that gene, though he did get HUGE paws), was 21 lbs at fighting weight.

          He was a danger to mockingbirds (no loss), and German Shepards. A neighbor tracked him after an attack. I was very amused, tbh. I’m in my trailer (we all lived in a trailer park just off 101 in Pismo Beach) with him laying in the sun at my feet, when this big burly ~very male guy shows up at my door with both of his GSDs in tow. They cowered when they saw Pip’s side eye… the guy told me to keep my cat indoors because he couldn’t, no, ~wouldn’t, put up with another attack.

          I just said “Really? You’re here to tell me to NOT LET MY CAT BEAT UP YOUR huge dogs?” I just laughed and went back to my reading… he never bothered me again. Not sure what Pip did about it though. (We had a lot of snowbirds. I’m sure they just moved on.)

          I’m short. But Pip could stretch up behind me, tap me on the shoulder. He was very long… 🙂

          1. Pete Rogan

            Impressive. My cat, Balthazar, was very friendly with dogs — or he tried to be. From some odd traits in his behavior (he liked the wet, he had to be TAUGHT to purr, and he wouldn’t let people stroke his back near his tail) I divined that he had been raised with Labradors. I was always tempted to take him hunting with me to fetch back my game, but I was afraid he’d just take it away and munch it in private — gratefully, mind, but I never saw fit to test the edge of his conditioning.

            I heard frantic barking one summer day, and looked out the window to see a Chihuahua trying to stand his ground and run behind his owner simultaneously. I knew immediately that Balthazar had gone to make friends with the dog, who saw this pint-sized panther coming at him, bigger than he was, and freaked. I was forced to go up to the owner and ask, “Is my cat bothering your dog?”

            Alas, I never saw him succeed in making friends with any of the dogs walking past my place. They’d see him coming, freeze up, and point, in that posture that says, in Dog, “A CAT!”

            And Balthazar would freeze, and look around quickly — Dog again for “A CAT!! Where??”

          2. russell styles

            There is a cat in Montana, the runt of his litter, that weighs 35 pounds. A Maine Coon with a maybe a 1/4 Lynx. Just the other day it and a Fox teamed up and killed a 100 lb deer.

          3. Meran

            Pete (I can’t reply to your post…) Your cat sounds awesome! Pip was also raised with large dogs, liked them, but didn’t like being bullied. He took care of himself.. and yes, with the exception of the Orphans I currently have (16, and NOT raised by me… their owners died of cancer 2 yrs ago), ~all my cats loved water, would climb in the tub with me (Pippin came into the ~shower!).

            Now, I’ve had Poms since ’96, all smaller than my cats (though they aren’t small!) The deer don’t know what to make of them, tbh. It’s fun to watch them interact through fencing.

        2. Muzhik

          Quick question: can I repost this story about the coyotes on a cat-lover’s FB page?

          (It’s called “Cat enthusiasts group (because we are not CRAZY cat people)” if you’re interested.)

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