Doing all the wrong things because you hate.

The economy is in the dumps and all the economist say you need to stimulate the economy to get things moving. So what do you do, lets cut spending at a “tossers” spanking speed. Not enough jobs, lets cut schools and public works projects. People can’t find jobs, you cut the safety net. By itself unemployment insurance helps stimulate the economy because those people on it spend every last dime which goes out into the community. Or to Walmart because that’s the only place they can buy cheap stuff. No Food Stamps because you say you want to cut spending but still give away money to corporate farms that don’t need it meanwhile you want to starve people because your just mean.Why are you doing everything to the country because you’re a racist turkey neck old bastard. People say, Mitch McConnell is a real asshole, a bigot from a funky state of a long line of bigots. It’s amazing watching the republican do themselves in. What only works for them is the stupid wedge issues. Then those people are stupid and just hang on to the wedge issue and don’t know anything about anything. Science, that’s the voodoo stuff for those elitist educated people. It’s amazing when the Tea Baggers shut down the government and didn’t think that would have any blow back. That’s like Bush invading Iraq and thinking they were going to greet us with roses. Bush and his cronies never thought about blow back. Where were the republicans then following Bush off the cliff like a bunch of lemmings. I kept saying Bush was running the country into the ground. The republican wanted to dump a broken country on to the democrats then say why can you fix it. Takes a few years to undo all the crap Bush and the republican caused. The idea you put you foot into everything and stopped progress and wondered why things are going as good as it should, well with the obstacles put in the way by the republicans. What get’s me, is people say republicans are afraid of their own shadows and believe in myths rather then facts. The way the republican are it’s like having a ship with the anchor out wondering why your not moving. There’s a French word for Cleaning bag, that’s what the GOP is, a cleaning bag.

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If they could only talk to me.

I've been looking at my Tiggers and wondering what she's saying. It's clear that there's more then just a meow. Last night I noticed that she repeated herself to tell me what she wanted to eat. She looked at me and repeated what she said like don't you understand me, I'm not stuttering. I've never heard of anyone trying to study animals and find out what they are saying. With the primates they were taught a language we knew and didn't try to understand what they were saying in their native tongue.
As I drove up I could see the deer in the yard. They looked over at me as I greeted them then looked back over at the house to see if I was coming out of the house. I don't think they understood that I was the same person. I find it so amazing being close to the deer. I'll get within 10 feet of them and walk around the herd. The babies really amazing me. They are so small and so full of life. I've never seen a creature so full of life before like I do with the baby deer.
The raccoons and skunks are a trip too. They make good forest friends but they are a little shy. One night I was eating cookies and went to the back porch where a raccoon was. Mrs. Nippers who has a nip taken out of her ear was there. I bent over to give her a cookie and she took it from me. We sat there on the back porch eating cookies until she had enough. I just kept giving her cookies when she was finished and she would take them from me. She's been a friend ever since then and doesn't run off at the sight of me. When she had the five babies she really had her hands full. When she would come around with them she didn't growl at me like other mothers did when I'd get close to the babies. In fact she sort of showed them off to me. The babies would get into the cats food and play with each other. I hung a sock up with a sock in side and they would pull and play with that every time they came here. On my YouTube channel I have them playing in the garden together. The babies liked piling on top of each other and rolling down the hill. I noticed that the babies are the only ones to make that cute raccoon vocalizations. Then I noticed the babies would react to mom and she was making a noise and I was only hearing the tail end of her call to the babies. She was making a sound that was over 20kHz and then it would tapper to a lower noise as she was stopping. I'll have to put a microphone outside next spring and run it into the program I have. I have one that is sort of to analyze voices. Now that I think of it I think the top of it is 20k.
A couple summers ago there were a lot of babies here. They would play together while the mothers would rest under their favorite trees. One day this little female came here with mom and the other babies weren't here yet. She started crying out for them I'm guessing. Since I really don't know why she was really crying out, I'm just guessing. I think she wanted her friends to play with. She seemed rather depressed when she didn't see them. When the babies did show up their mother didn't want them running like they did the day before. The babies wanted to go but would look over at mom and she was saying no. I would have liked to see them running and playing again. The little female baby tried to motivate the babies by jumping and kicking her back legs out as she jumped. The two babies kept looking over at mom and then looked down as to be sad. So that was two emotions displayed to me by the babies.
One night when I first moved in it was raining pretty hard. I looked out the window to see a baby deer standing there. A larger male deer came over and put his head over the baby's neck and then started licking the baby. I'm thinking that the baby deer seemed frightened and the large male deer comforted the baby. It really looked like that to me. I was wondering where the mother of the baby was because it seemed pretty small.
Taking photographs of the wildlife I've been trying to capture them expressing emotions. It's taken several years but I can see it now but it's not that clear in the photo. The other day I got a picture of a mother deer licking this orphan baby she took in. The baby just stood there as mom was licking her. They walked off together side by side. The deer have been one of the only creature that I seen smiling but then their lips sort of go that way. I know when they have another emotion like being concern their lips go flat across instead of up when they are happy.
I noticed that turkeys show emotions but you really have to look. Their faces are sort of fixed but it's their actions I've watched and noticed when they are happy. It's also the angle they point their heads. That's something I've learned over years to see. I have such a different opinion of turkeys these days. They are smart birds. I've watch them gather in a group and plan out what they were going to do. They lined up and put on a parade for the female birds. It clearly showed that they conveyed an idea between them. I've only seen them do that once out of all the years I've been watching them. Turkeys do have a sort of language they talk to each other with. After watching them I started picking up what they were saying. It was more a feeling I got when I heard them. I noticed that other birds about the same size made the same vocalizations even though they were a different type of bird. When the vultures started eating this dead skunk killed by dogs coming through the turkeys came up to the edge of the creek and watched the big birds. I don't know if they were trying to see if they were related. They sure seemed interested in seeing those big birds here because then never had seen them up close.
I'm going to have to figure out a way of taking voice prints. See if I can learn and see if the creatures have some sort of vocal language. I'd like to figure out what's going on in the minds of the kitties. I'm really amazed at the different sounds that the kitties make. Each kitten makes a unique set of sounds. Dieter makes sounds that are almost silent. She makes these two little chirp like cries when she comes up to me. Momma kitty is totally silent, so is Wheezer. I noticed that Wheezer stopped her coughing or wheezing. She was real bad when she first came here.Sprockets meows real quiet too. She also makes what sounds like a sentence, it's a series of little meows and gurgles. Every one is unique but for the most part the wildlife is mostly silent. They talk by looks to each other. It's like they don't have to say anything but the others know looking at them what they are saying.

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Water wows

Hearing tonight about water wells up here running low to running out. Last year ending a few days back was the driest year in California history. Sacramento still doesn't use meters, either does some older cities before they became big. A friend stopped farming his 600 acres because they put meters on his wells. He had six inch lines going down into the grown. I noticed that wells were using to much water back a few years ago when my creek stopped running all year round. It even stopped flowing in the winter time. After a major storm the creek would flow but would dry up right away. Too many wells where people were wasting the water keeping their lawns green. As one person told me, "It's free water so why not." They weren't concern with the water in my creek but they will start to worry when there well starts drying up. So many people think they have a well and it doesn't effect anyone else but it does. When you drain the water table it effects everyone using that water table. When creeks dry up that's surface water that comes from that same water table. The people along the American river must be noticing that their wells are pumping a bit slower. The three rivers haven't been filling up the Folsom dam. Old gold rush towns are starting to show themselves and people are picking up suveneers of the past on the lake bottom. It' funny to hear some of the people of northern California saying the people of southern California are steeling are water. Then there has been a few words over the new state water project. I guess that's more then a few year project and they are really looking to the future. I heard the other day it's not going to be finished for decades. They plan to bore two 20 foot holes under the delta. I'm guessing that they plan to be under a impervious layer so that the delta wouldn't leak in as they were boring. There's a lot of heats voices over this water shortage. They don't seem to think before they say but spout off a lot of mean things. The old water system sucks up fish and they have to cut the pumps when the water gets low and they suck up fish. Then the fisher men are complaining about the smelt being sucked into the pumps and not being eaten by the growing salmon which there has been a shortage of. It's amazing seeing these cause and effect situations. There's too many people saying that climate change isn't happening. Then this lack of water has to be caused by something. Weather patterns have been changing and for a few week most of the country was in the deep freeze. Of course Rush shoots his mouth off saying what climate change. He didn't look at the temperature of the southern hemisphere where it was up to 129 degrees. That doesn't sound so bad when you see it as 53.88 degrees until they say it's Celsius. They use those numbers down there. We are one of the few countries still using Fahrenheit and inches and feet. All the people of science use metric it's so simple to use too. You don't have odd things like pints and cups. One of these days we will have to switch over and be normal like the rest of the world. Some people are talking about building more dams but if it's not raining then what will they do.  Then damming up all the rivers what will that do to the people down river with wells? What if this is just a normal function of this area since we haven't been taking records all that long compared to geologic history. We could have a period of low rain for the next ten or twenty years. What will that do to the states population. Will we look at the ocean to take the salt out of that water? Will we tighten out belts and just use less water. Showers but once a week and that's metered out. Two flush toilets in ever house but only flushing the solids. Maybe even switch to composting type toilets. Then when they fill up they can flush a paste mostly composted down the drain saving water. Then saving any rain water off the roof when it rains like people do on some islands. Change plants over to all native plants that don't need water and stay green all year round. Right now everyone is projecting the worst. We are still getting some snow and that will melt and go down the rivers. Life hasn't change yet where we don't recognize it like it was. One thing for sure the price will go up and never come down even if we are swimming in a lake.

Why do republicans want to cut Social Security?

Why do the republicans blame the poorest of the country for the problems. I wasn’t the poor that caused the banking problem. It wasn’t the poor that caused the housing bubble and collapse. It was rich CEO’s, bank presidents, greedy salesmen, speculators. Then there was the repeal of the Glass/Stegal act which contributed to the banking problem. Because investment bankers now were covered by the government they took bigger risks. Since hedge funds never lost they thought every thing was going to keep going fine. It’s going to go on forever the bankers and investors all thought. No one could see the house of cards. Some senators warned this day was going to come when Glass/Stegal was repealed. Everyone should know that bankers don’t have any self control. That if they can cheat they will. Republicans said we needed to keep the Bush tax cuts which were tax cuts for the rich and every one else got a minimal amount in the form of a check. The rich made out big time since their tax cut was in the form of a percentage of their income. Which means they got millions to billions cut from their taxes. Well, the Bush tax cuts ended and the world didn’t stop and the sky didn’t fall. In fact jobs were made and the stock market had record breaking amounts. So that slogan the republicans said that taxing the job makes was another myth of theirs.

A friend said to me, “those Tax and Spend Democrats.” I thought for a bit of the Bush years. That was a cut and cut and spend and spend policy. They would spend as they cut taxes not coming up for a way to pay for all the tax cuts. Then there is the two wars that weren’t paid for. That’s the sum of several trillion dollars that will have to be paid for. Still the republicans want to cut taxes and not pay for anything. They remind me of my ex-wife who said, “it didn’t cost us anything because I put it on the credit card.”

Social Security is a self funded program and has money for many years into the future. If anything that needs to be fixed is republicans. They need to stop reproducing and be fixed like a dog or cat. One thing I can see that needs to be done is making everyone pay into Social Security and stop giving the people at the top a break from paying in. Sure they might not use it but if you want to be part of America you need to take part.

Why are republicans cheer leaders to make things fail. They don’t want to help anyone except themselves. They are such a minority except for the sheep following them that can’t think for themselves. The Tea Baggers are run by the rich and they have followers that just parrot the talking points. They couldn’t come up with their own thought because they are shallow, dim witted, inbreed, hicks that don’t listen to what they are saying. If they could only hear what they are saying they would know that they are only doing themselves harm. The Tea Baggers talk about taking back the country and to do everything constitutionally but they are being funded by the Koch brothers and speaking and repeating the talking points they came up with. I don’t want more pollution, more global warming gases into the air. Koch brothers want to keep using oil and oil products. They don’t care about the future of the planet but what they can make right now. The Koch brothers say there are too many government laws, regulations and it’s costing people jobs. That’s all wrong and they are just lies. The regulations are to prevent corporations from running all over dumping pollutions every where. They want some sort of free ride. Remember their father was the leader and founder of the John Birch Society. Why don’t they like the EPA? Wasn’t Nixon that formed the EPA? Now the republicans have been attacking the EPA because someone told them to. (Koch brothers) They have people like Oklahoma’s congress man that believes global warming is a joke and is all for oil and coal and anything that will kill the planet. Why do republicans choose short term profits over long term life of the planet? Greed has to be a form of mental illness. They don’t want to help people get insured. They are against Obama because of the color of his skin and party. The minority senator really is a problem child. He thinks he’s funny but that is only funny to look at. I’m amazed at his wife. Must be a mail order bride. She must like power and money because it’s sure not for his looks. She’s lucky to be so much younger them him because when he dies which will be before her she gets it all. I guess that’s one reason for women to get married. Boehner still can’t say his name right, how can he lead the republican congress. He can’t they are all over the place. The Tea Baggers are totally out of control and don’t mind if they crash the country or worlds economy. we saw that when they shut down the country. They didn’t care. I really think they didn’t have a clue what they were doing. I don’t think they have a clue what they have done because they are out of touch with America. They only talk to other Tea Baggers so that’s what they think the people want. If you listen to crazy people and that’s all you see then of course your going to come up with weird shit. Just look at the bird brain that ran for presidency she wasn’t the devil and only was a witch for a short period in college. Just think of the people that voted for her and what a grip on reality they have. They are the ones that say, “I want government out of my Medicare and Social Security.” I know it’s funny when you hear that but you should be frightened that there are people like that, people that think like that. They are the same people that believe that the earth is 10,000 years old. Something happened back in the 60’s to the republican party. They went from being normal to this ultra conservative crap. Now everyone tries to be more conservative then the other and that just makes them a real fringe bunch of people. They can’t just be to the right, then need to be out in right field or even out of the park. Some have left this planet they are so far right. They didn’t go to Washington to work as much as they went there to obstruct thing. The NeoCon’s had to be the farthest right ever to where what they did, run the country into the ground will go down in history.

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Why do Republicans go after social security

Social security doesn’t have anything to do with the budget. It’s a self funded program with it’s own money. It’s like having two different accounts in the bank. Ones the budgets and ones social security. There’s a need for more funds to be raised for social security which is a minor fix. The problem is that more people are living longer and inflation. So increase the deduction tax taken out of payroll checks. There also should be an input from everyone in the country even if you don’t plan to use it. There is no need to cut social security to anyone just get more input. You don’t need to put people into poverty like the republicans like.

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Gunning down people for fun and profit.

Why are these criminals still walking free?

This video still amazes me and that no one has been held responsible for killing all these innocent people. This is one video the Manning gave to WikiLeaks and it was there for a while now it’s on YouTube. I’m just as shocked now watching this as I was the first time I watched it. Clearly you can see that none of the people are holding AK-47 or RPG’s what the voice says as they engage the people. They pilots must have been wired on meth to stay alert and have gone into narcosis and are hallucinating. Seems like someone that sees weapons daily can’t tell what the people are holding. I’m not in the military nor have I ever been and I can tell none of these people have any weapons. This video isn’t the master or the view that the pilot had which would have been hundred of times more clear. Even as bad as this video is you can clearly see that the guy is carrying a camera.

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Another King Looser

Hey Steven King you know what endings are for? They tell you when the movies over. Evidently that bump on your head to ending out of your brain. CBS made a movie based on your name and boy did they get a looser. This has to be like all your other books where the price of the book is based on the pound. Let me guess you wrote and wrote and couldn’t pull it all together in the end because you had so many plots running all over so you just left it hanging. That’s going to come out in Book II. Casting wasn’t so good either. They must have looked in a bar to see who was still standing and said your hired. I just wonder how long the screen play was. I hope they didn’t use a 120 pages for two hours or 60 pages for an hour. They sure had a lot of reaction shot to fill in time. They could have done this movie in half the time and have more drama and you wouldn’t be falling asleep. The first few nights were pretty boring. Then if you looked at past Steven King movies they are all draggers. Seems like the studio would have stepped in. Then the studio and TV stations might be using Steven Kings name to sell ads. Wonder if the sales force got to sell time blindly where the costumers didn’t get to see how the movie look just that it’s going to have projected numbers because it’s a Steven King movie based on one of his book, those books they sell by the pound. Under my Dooms, and I’ve got the skitters. As Triumph the insult comic dog would say, “That’s a nice doom, for me to poop on!” “Has some interesting bad guys, for me to poop on.” “And that little dome another nice thing to poop on.”

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Baby Ears and Mom

Those little round heads and big ears all signs of a baby. The little head needs to be grown into. Watching the babies I’m always over joyed watching them explore the world seeing everything for the first time. Baby deer are always smiling and happy. It’s sort of a nursery here where the mothers relax and the babies run and play. It’s amazing watching them run as fast as they can. They don’t care where they run a long as it’s fast. The mothers look on like any worried mother but they know the babies are running like they once did when they were small. Every year that’s my enjoyment watching all the babies. The mothers of all species look at the babies with so much love for them. I’ve noticed that other species give the babies room to play and explore. The deer looking at the baby skunks knowing that soon they will have babies soon also. The raccoon are exploring all the new life too. They roll and play with each other. They are so cute and so shy. It takes a while to earn their trust but when you do it’s wonderful.

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The new pictures are here. The new pictures are here. Still the same old bones.

You know your getting old when the new president is younger then you. Trying out my Panasonic 3 chip camera to see how the color and sharpness come out. After all they say this camera is a semi pro camera. For the price it’s a rather good camera.

Little Boo-Boo-Leg. Poor little thing was run over by a fleeing deer at night. I needed to feed her by hand for several months until she healed and got back on her feet. I don’t know if her back was damaged or if it was just her leg. She’s old and walking slow. She’s a very friendly little buddy and lets me pet her. I think she likes it

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Tiny, the rat tail skunk

Don’t know where Tiny has been but where ever it was it was a small space where it got it’s tail hair stuck on something. It did have a normal tail and it still a normal tail just without hair. I’ve got Tiny used to me and now Tiny comes over when I call. I can also pet Tiny. She’s a real scrapper and doesn’t care how big the other skunks are. She will let out a scream and try biting the other skunks. The other skunks just ignore her. I know now why they have such thick fur it’s so others can bite on them without feeling it.

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Small Slipper Kitten

How small the kittens were before leaving. I only had them here until they got up to over two pounds. They were about one pound when I got them. They were a handful to watch grow up. Now that they are gone I really miss them. Then I knew that they were only going to be with me a short time.

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Cuteness is…..

Cuteness is a kitten playing with your shoe strings for hours.

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So, you have been doing this for years….

The Guardian News paper in England reported that Verizion has been storing call data. Meta data but no calls. the NSA has been doing this for years Senator Feinstein said, we should be used to this. ATT was outed a few years ago for the secret room with lines going in from the over seas calls. So this is suppose to stop terrorist from doing things. What about a couple kids from New York calling and traveling to Russia, would that send up red flags? When Russian police say to the FBI, you should watch these guys. What are the NSA and FBI doing when another countries police warn that these are dangerous people but you didn’t do anything. From what I heard it was some cheesy deal and you dropped the balls again. So we found out about this from a leaked document. Might as well been the Time or Wiki leaks it’s all the media. Government is defending this policy. I just don’t get if they are getting all this data into that new facility in Utah, why didn’t they get the Boston bombers? We were warned by Russia. The people called Russia and the people in Russia called here. Some how the billions of dollars spent tracking phone calls isn’t the best bang for the buck. Police telling you to watch these guys isn’t much of a clue either.What is a credible warning? What is a credible threat? How much do you have to stand out before the NSA does something? What gets me is someone on the news said if the Boston bombers had used their phone which they did they could have stopped the bombers.I’m thinking it’s a waste of time myself also a waste of money. We are spending trillions of dollars on prevention and turning up nothing other wise the Boston bombers who the Russians said watch these guys, if that’s not a big red flag I don’t know what is.How often do other countries police tell us to watch these guys and they turn out to be terrorist? What does it take people shooting up flares before the NSA will see something. What does it take for the FBI to take notice? 

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Mrs. Nippers

Mrs. Nippers a little better or worse for wear. This is what happens when you have five babies all at once last year. She’s a good girl and eats cookies with me on warm summer nights. I saw her babies last night traveling together. Momma Nippers is a somewhat friendly raccoon. She trust me to a point. No matter how good the raccoons know you they still look at you like a giant and they don’t want to be harmed by no giant. Momma nippers has a missing piece to her ear so Mrs. Nippers. Was great watching the babies grow up and watch Nippers teach the babies how to be a raccoon. She’s rather protective while she’s raising the babies and will give you a growl to tell you to stay away. The babies will run up the nearest tree for protection. It’s simply amazing watch them grow up and go off on their own. I’ve noticed that most all the animals live in one area and if you don’t see them every day then they are dead. I not sure how many years a raccoon can live but it has to be ten to twenty years.

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The Pretty Momma Deer

My deer friend Momma Deer. At times I swear she knows everything I say. Well she’s been around here for many years raising her babies. She would come here to rest and let the babies play with the other babies. I’ll see them almost going to sleep while the babies are running around the yard. One time a female baby came here and was calling out for her friends. I never thought they have friends but they do and they like to play if it’s okay with mom. The babies will want to play and mom will say no. The babies look so disappointed. The babies are always smiling as they look around. Even talking to Momma Deer she smiles for me when I say, “there’s my pretty girl.” There’s a group of six females that come here every day. They find the yard tasty.

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Baby Tiggers came home tonight

I’ve been so worried about baby Tiggers because she hasn’t been home an a couple nights. I have a general idea where she might be but I’m worried about her. Sprockets chases he off and I don’t know why she’s getting picked on by Sprockets because she gets along with all the other kitties and wildlife. I’d feel better if she stayed close to the house and slept in one of the boxes on the porch or deck. I don’t know why Sprockets chases her little sister but she does. Those other strays come around and none of the kitties do anything about them.

I got her in the house to eat and get some pets. She really like attention and I give it to her. I’d like to turn her into an indoor kitty but after a period inside she will start freaking out and start jumping at the door.

I’m sure glade she showed up tonight. I’m hoping that she will be back tomorrow. I leave food out for her when I close things up when I go to bed. I don’t know where she goes at night or if she even sleep at night. I’ll have to follow her one of these nights with the night vision scope. Just bothers me to no end having her out there when it’s cold and raining. I’ll keep working with her and hopefully one day she will become an indoor kitty. Mean while I’ll just worry about her.

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It works, finally

After beating my head against the wall I called my “IP” up. Very little help. I did figure out what was wrong on my own by deducting what the “IP” didn’t say. I even got the TV hooked up so I don’t have to have the computer on to watch a movie. That was getting kind of old having the computer going. Now I can actually be using the computer with a movie going. Also got the network working properly. The other computer can now get online.

Rained over night and into the morning. Was cold all day. My bones were all aching. I guess it’s going to be like this for a couple more days. Heard on the weather report that it was snowing still on top the mountains. Well that’s not unusual for here. It’s 60 degree and just after 9PM. I have the front door open and my little buddies are coming up to me for a treat. No foxes yet but the nights young.

A guest kitty that came by for dinner. Poor thing looks all skinny. Sprockets was checking out the new kitty. They didn’t do any fighting just looking at each other. There’s another kitty that looks like Momma kitty with the tip of her ear gone.

Poor kitty looks rather meek looking at me. It doesn’t have the long hair like Momma Kitty. I feel bad that there are all these cats running around without a home. People come to the park next door and drop off their cats and move. I’ve seen so many cats over the years.

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Momma Kitty

“Oh look at me I caught a lizard.” I’ve never seen kitties like my kitties who catch things like lizards then eat them. I saw them eating a snake one day. Most of the time they go after big bugs and moths and eat them.

Kitty eating a lizard she caught.

Momma Kitty with her long hair. I just found a large wad of gray hair. I don’t know how she licked it off or if Wheezer licked it off but there’s a large wad of gray fur out on the walkway. My kitties are the only ones I seen climbing trees like they do. They run up a tree like it’s nothing. Then they climb around like they are a bird. I’ve noticed they show off doing things like climbing and darting around. They will look over to see if I’m watching them then start running full speed. I like watching them play chase. They will hide behind a bush and you can clearly see them but they play like you can’t. The other cat will be walking like it doesn’t see them but she does. Then they jump at each other flying over each other and then the chase starts. I’ve never seen cats run as fast as they do. I see thing I’ve never seen house cats do. I’ve never seen a cat swing on a rope hanging from a tree. Yes a rope. She will run full speed and jump grabbing the rope and then swing.

Just heard something behind me. I turned to see my little buddy in the house looking for me and a treat. This is the little buddy with the dead tic on her forehead right on the white stripe. I have the doors open to save me from opening them and making noises. The skunks will walk up to the door but this little buddy will follow me into the kitchen. I’ve found her walking around the house and into the bedroom looking for me. When they see me they expect a treat. They are pretty smart too. I can talk to them to get them to come over to me. The only think they have trouble with is other skunks coming to close to them. They don’t mind being around raccoons or the cats. The cats come right up to the skunks and both of them just sniff each other. I don’t call them my pets because saying they are mine when they are wild and pets means I own them which I don’t. All the animals here are free to come and go as they please. I just share the forest with them and most likely the only human they have ever seen.

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The Little Puppy

There’s my little Sprout coming to say hi. Her mother hasn’t shown up but was here yesterday. I’m surprised the shot came out as good as it did. I just set the distance because I couldn’t see anything through the camera, it was too dark. The gray foxes are just the coolest creatures. They have shown me how smart they are. She was a bit nervous when a deer came through. I guess something that much bigger then her walking around and worried about getting stepped on. My cats and skunks seem to get along fine with the foxes. The only ones that sort of give the fox some problems is the raccoons but they are bigger then the foxes.

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A letter of old…

This was a letter my Aunt Regina wrote to her friend in Scotland in 1945. It’s about my father ordeal as a POW

Isabel,

I've written the following as best as I could about what my brother has told us. I've written it and put it in my scrapbook as a lasting memory.

The names are those of his crew and "Sak" is my brother.

On July 30, 1944 the crew of "Our Belle II" was returning from his mission. About 11 o'clock the plane was hit by anti-aircraft guns, causing the wing to come off and the engines to catch on fire. No orders were given as to what to do. Each man was for himself. The turret gunner (caught in the wind force unable to move) did not mail out. The rear gunner was hit by flak and also couldn't bail out. Sak (my brother) was hit in the hip but bailed out with the other seven. He let himself drop for hundred feet before he opened his parachute because the plane was falling and he might have caught his chute on fire.

Sak and the pilot landed on a small island off Hungary, where a group of Hungarian people were having a picnic. The pilot injured his leg and Sak his leg. Both were taken by the people. The navigator (landed nearby) was hit in the head by a pitch fork and clubbed by the people. (He lived though) The radioman (my brothers best buddy) was shot through the stomach as he landed and died. Sak and the pilot were man-handled. Richardson, it is believed was hung by the frantic crowd. (My brother said they saw bodies hanging that day and believe he was among them.)

From this point the German soldiers came and the boys were sent to Budapest. Here they were questioned. The Germans, through their spy service, had already had their names, rank etc. Yet they questioned them for such minor details but the boys always answered, "You know better to ask that" or "we hit our target so you know where we went."

Sak was placed in solitary confinement, while some were put in dark rooms or in rooms where they couldn't stand up. Others were fed on one day and not the next. Levi Caldwell was chained and pulled by his hair to get information. The boys were slapped when they wouldn't answer. Sak's American cigarettes were taken from him and he was given three German ones in exchange.

After staying here three weeks, they were put on a train and sent to Germany. On the train, they were given a piece of hard salami, which was full of maggots, and a loaf of moldy bread. Both were thrown out.

In Germany they were sent to Stalag Luft 4 (near Baltic Sea). The first few months they stayed in tents, but when it got colder they were put in barracks. Their daily menu was: Breakfast - barley coffee; Lunch - soup made from weeds, grass, worms - served in a pail for 24 men - smelled and tasted lie soap and could not be eaten. Supper - potatoes, rutabagas, turnips or sugar beets (usually fed to cattle) occasionally, the boys would steal some bread or bribe the guards.

For recreation the boys would play cards (they made them from cardboard), ball and clean their barracks to keep them free of lice. Once in a while Red Cross packages came and the boys would be kept alive for a while. Some took up knitting and took old stockings, pulled the threads from them and embroidered. Still others took up studying German or French. Sak took a hair brush, pulled the bristles out and carved a cigarette case from it. He did it with a razor blade and Isabel, it's really beautiful.

None of the boys had to work, because the Air Force was considered a high military branch, due to Goerhing having been a pilot in World War I. Their mattresses consisted of sawdust put into covers the boys had made from bags.

The first 5 days, due to the diet, Sak's stomach swelled up and most of the boys got dysentery. Later on, their bodies broke out with boils - (my brother still has scars) due to malnutrition. Sometimes a Red Cross package contained raisins and jam, so the boys would take bread (made with sawdust) and mix the raisins and jam together, add soda bicarbonate pills and make cakes. Once in a while they got a chicken from a women in exchange for soap, and they would pack the chicken in mud, roast it; peel off the mud and feathers and eat it!

In February the Russians started their advance and the prisoners were forced to move. From February to March 30 they marched 830 kilometers planning an escape. They had planned their route etc. and three boys did leave. However, they stayed in a forest for four days and got so sick that they had to give themselves up and heaven knows what happened to them.

Also, while on the march, Sak said some towns were almost completely demolished, and only the foundations were left.

On May 3, 1945 the camp was liberated. Sak said all were happy but had expected the surprise. They had heard and seen Berlin burning 90 miles away as if it were a mile away. After being liberated, the men were stripped of their cloths, given new ones and sent to France, England and then home. The first few weeks they were given two meals a day (just a very little) to accustom them to eating. Then they were given 3 meals and finally 3 heavy consisting of creamy, rich foods and vitamins to build them up. Sak gained 20 pounds on the ship.

On May 31 he telephoned us from Fort Shedidan, Ill and said he's be home on Saturday. So we met him at the station Saturday. (the train was an hour late) Sak was very quiet at first but now is as he used to be.

He has received the purple heart, president citation, air medal, three oak leaf clusters and four stars for battle campaigns.

- He did not receive any of our mail or packages for ten months.

So you see, Isabel, why I say only miracles brought him back. He said "Saint Anne brought him back" (He wore a metal of this saint during all his trips etc.) but I told him the whole of heaven did and I guess that's true.

He also said he couldn't tell us everything, because there's still a war going on but I can't imagine anything else that he could add!

Bye now and love,

Regina

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