The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

The actor who played Caesar, whose name I forget had earlier played Jesus Christ in a tv movie biography of Him. Surprising casting, I thought! The actor who played Pompey the Great was the original younger detective on Law and Order, and did an excellent job portraying a major historical figure who is usually portrayed starting with his head being handed to Caesar by young Ptolemy of Egypt, Cleopatra's brother and rival!

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

That same channel had a TV movie of the Siege of Troy earlier in the year. TV and the movies are making a lot of historical dramas from classical and pre-classical times, including upcoming biopics of Hannibal the Carthaginian and Alexander the Great! As a fan of classical history I am in hog heaven!

[Wneighbor]

I too have always been a history buff. I am envious of those of my friends who are able to sit and watch such fare on TV. However, my budget wisdom says if I'm going to watch these things, I need to do it at their homes!

[HairOfTheDog]

Crap!

[Wneighbor]

You've lost it.

You've lost Fatty Lumpkin.

[HairOfTheDog]

Noro Lim Fatty Lumpkin!

[HairOfTheDog]

Mountain Biker Stares Down Mountain Lion

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Well, now that you have lost one of the participants in the Fellowship of the Ring, you will have more time here! The library is closing, hope to be back this week.

[HairOfTheDog]

I hope you come back with more frequency than you have been of late!

[Wneighbor]

Good article. Hiking out in the Big Bend area they have instruction sheets and signs posted in many places with those instructions. I have been in the eerie situation of hiking far from camp and smelling that "lion scent" from the zoo. Wondering..... But, I love it. Only seen 'em from far away or dead on the tailgate of a pickup.

[HairOfTheDog]

If I ever saw one I would be amazed beyond belief... We have them here, they aren't threatened.... I have to wonder if one has ever seen me, riding out in the woods... but they are too good at not being seen for a rookie like me.

[ecurbh]

Yikes!

[Wneighbor]

That's what I wonder. Especially the day I smelled that scent. And I thought, hmmmm, that smells like the place at the zoo where all the big cats are! And it's pretty strong and rank. And Myranda was with me - you know - a kid. And I'm thinking, okay, I know what the instructions are. Make yourself look as big as possible. Yell. Throw things. So, it was going to be "make like an ent, pick the hobbit kid up and get her to throwing rocks!

But, I never saw anything............... and what saw me?

The ranchers around home kill 'em just about every year. Usually one a year. One of my good friend's grandfather killed one 8 or 10 years ago. Guy was like a 95 year old man when he killed it. That's the one I saw in the back of the pickup.... HUGE!

[Corin Stormhands]

Do dogs get colitis?

Apparently they do. I didn't get the full "poop" on the story...so to speak. But he's on an antibiotic. We can't feed him for 24 hours following the puke episode, so he'll be whiny tonite. He's also down to four cups of food a day. He's not gonna like that.

Dr. says it should clear up with the antibiotic, but wants to see him in a month to make sure it isn't his thyroid. Usually we'd finish the antibiotic in two weeks, but since he goes to the kennel when we go to the beach, we'll continue the antibiotic thru that time.

How did the doc find out? You're right. You don't want to know. Let's just say there was blood in his "product" and leave it at that.

[Corin Stormhands]

Causes are listed here
http://www.thepetcenter.com/gen/colitis.html

Not gonna post 'em. Wouldn't be prudent. Except this:

"Any dog with pica (the compulsion to eat non food material) is a candidate for intermittent colitis."

I bet he ate my security card and parking pass.

[Corin Stormhands]

Did you ever read "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury? It's a short story. Look it up.

[HairOfTheDog]

And Myranda was with me - you know - a kid.

That reminds me of a story...

I was with a friend at Wolf Haven.... a wolf rescue, breeding and sanctuary place a few miles from here. We were standing by a compound that had Timber wolves in it... and there was a toddler - 2-3 years old running all over the place making loud toddler noises, too young to care what the tour guide was saying and full of too much energy to stand quiet. Well, the tour guide was annoyed at the disruption of having to talk over her, and having something else competing for the stage.

I was watching one of the wolves track that kid. That wolf followed the kid back and forth, and if the kid ran away from the group, the wolf went with her. The wolf was intense. Yellow eyes that didn't seem to blink in concentration.

I nudged my friend and said "That wolf sees dinner."

This is what the tour guide said:

"This wolf is one of our momma wolves, and she is following that child because her maternal instinct has been turned on and she is concerned that the child doesn't appear to have any supervision."

I laughed out loud. The tour guide had already revealed herself to be an idiot before this, but that was too much. (*see example below)

My friend and I talked about it later and he had a different take on it. He thought the tour guide had been quite clever in telling the parent to please "parent" the child.... That it had been a ruse. I thought it was not as good of a ruse as "That wolf sees an unattended child to eat" would have been.

*Earlier at another pen, I asked what the wolves were eating, as they had big peices of some large animal they were gnawing on. She had said that they buy cattle parts from the rendering plant "Where people take animals who die of natural causes or in accidents".... I said "Lady, very few cattle die of old age from natural causes... And they all end up at rendering plants." Jeeze, I thought.... Get a grip.... If this tour guide is gonna make it around wolves, she had better get comfortable with the idea of carnivores.

Anyway, unintended side trip!

[HairOfTheDog]

I bet he ate my security card and parking pass.

Oh Corin.... to blame your poor sick dog for losing your parking pass.... that is deplorable! ;~D

[Scott from the Left Coast]

My female dog...who has a compulsion to eat all sorts of non-food items (rocks, bark, horse-poop, other forms of poop, and other oddities) has gotten severe colitis a couple of times. Vet bill-type colitis. What is said here is true. They pretty much get over it in about five days on anti-biotics and meals of plain white rice and cottage cheese.

[ecurbh]