I'd Kill For My Cat

Cold Blood

Was fighting a man-cold this weekend and ended up watching hours and hours of Animal Planet's Fatal Attractions marathon. Fascinating series. It's a well-produced character study of individuals who call dangerous animals and reptiles their pets. And sadly, most of the cases end with both the pet owner and the pet(s) being killed.

Click below for a sample.

Chilling drawing by a man who witnessed his neighbor who had been partially devoured by his pets after he died from an infectious bite by one of his critters.

Pumpkin Feast

Image source.

This tortoise reminded me of a family pet we had when I was young. An eastern box turtle. He lived in our yard all year long. Dug down into a hole in the winter and hibernated until the first thaw of spring. Then he came up and slipped into his watering hole (a black plastic paint roller tray) for hours to rehydrate. He was like a dog. A small, leathery, slow-moving, dinosaur dog. He'd hunt for worms during rain storms and eat my mother's strawberries before she could pick them. If you were out in the yard, he'd saunter over (in his own way) and sit by your toes.

Then one very cold spring morning, during a heavy rain storm, my father mentioned "I gave the turtle a hand this morning with the shovel. I helped him out." I don't know much about turtle engineering, but they dig their holes in a way that will prevent them from drowning during heavy rains. My father had created some kind of mini-crater around our turtle's hole and it promptly filled up with icy cold water. We tried to return it to the way it was, but the hole just stayed that way - filled to the brim with muddy brown water. A week later, when the real spring thaw arrived, our turtle was a no-show. And my father was a murderer.

Ghost Cat

Image source.

The caption below the photo at the above link is priceless.