I May Be a Birdbrain
But Smart FReepers Donate Monthly
To Abolish FReepathons
Posted on 01/01/2012 8:10:22 AM PST by Gen.Blather
I met some illegal Mexicans last night at a party. Several years ago I stayed with a couple of wonderful Mexican families in the Baja below California. These were well-off people. The homes, on average were beautifully tiled and some of them had mahogany inlaid walls, bookshelves and cabinetry that would cost a hundred-thousand dollars here. So, I’m guessing if they aren’t rich they’re very comfortable. The elderly not as well-off grandfather, while living in Mexico was receiving Social Security from the United States and owned a rent-free apartment in California which he used as his address to receive several forms of assistance checks from Californian agencies. He visited the apartment once a week to re-arrange things and make it looked lived in. He had a car, a Toyota Corolla that looked quite nice and had working air-conditioning. I gathered it was supplied as some form of assistance and he generally left it in California at the apartment. The apartment was about 1100 square feet and very livable. The grandfather told me most of entire complex, easily a 1000 units, were like him, on Californian assistance, but actually living in Mexico.
At the party were a couple of teenage boys from this family. Very nice kids. I’d be proud to have them as my own; diligent, hard working, trouble-free and much more adult than you’d expect from that age. They told me that they’d decided to go to high school in California instead of Mexico. They said that the (California) government gave them an apartment and they travel back to Mexico on the weekends. (I don’t know if they’re staying alone or if a family member is staying with them, but if I had to guess, they came alone.)
When I posted information on this family last time, Freepers angrily asked why I hadn’t reported them. Firstly, I was a well-treated guest. Secondly, this must be obvious to the casual observer. Even if I knew who to report it to in California, which I don’t, it is obvious that this is how it’s done. These people are only taking advantage of “benefits” put there for them. Not to avail themselves of these benefits would be like deciding not to take candy freely offered to you.
Aaaack. This is gonna require some thinking.
First, know what you are up against.
Second, use a mix of traps.
You just never know if the ‘wee tiny mousie’ has some friends.
‘Wee tiny mousie’ usually does have friends.
Our wee tiny mousie brought the small female rat with him, which brought the chipmunk, which brought two or three more field mice.
Sounds like you have a very egalitarian subculture there.
It’s a house in the middle of farm fields.
Of course the rodents lead each other to goodies.
It’s even better when the field mice get into the cow feed and a mouse gets a ‘cow nibble’.
You see this enraged little rodent leaping out of the feed, and the cow is terrified of this squeaking horror.
I have a Second Class Scout working on the First Aid Merit Badge. Could he do in a pinch?
He doesn't wash his fingernails much but he's really accomplished at picking at them with a stick.
. . . and in Tombstone, 1881, her nickname was "Old One-Duel."
You make me glad I live in the forest, where we only have to worry about coyotes, foxes, deer, armadillos (sp?), bunnies, squirrels, possums, raccoons, snakes, ducks, and the occasional panther. Haven’t seen any bears, but they’re supposed to be here. Occasionally, we’ve heard about crazy cows and spooked horses creating dangerous situations, but haven’t directly witnessed any of them. Local chickens and peacocks don’t cause much trouble here.
New York, where even the rabbits are crazy.
Speaking about unfortunate, I took McCthulhu to the vet earlier today. He/she/it seems to have some bizarre form of leprosy causing it to lose tentacles when it sneezes. It also picked up a raspy cough. Or maybe it was a bark? Anyway, I decided it needed to go to the vet. It didn’t go well. Advice for anyone else who adopts or gets claimed by one of the creatures from the UT: make sure you don’t go to a high strung vet.
OK. So we get to the vet. Nothing untoward so far. McCthulhu was in it’s carrier like any other pet in the waiting room. I get a few strange looks by the other owners due to the razor ribbon I had wrapped around the carrier, but so far so good. So, they take us back to the examining room and from there things begin to head north.
First, the tech that they sent to take McCthulhu’s temperature and vitals didn’t know a thing about UT creatures. She tried to put the thermometer in the wrong orifice and McCthulhu ate it. Well, the tech started screaming that McCthulu tried to bite off her finger. I was there and it was a gross exaggeration of what actually happened. I tried to calm her down and assured her that McCthulhu would NOT have tried to bite off her finger; it would have gone for the whole hand instead. That didn’t seem to placate her much, and she went to go get the vet.
Well, the vet comes in and he’s already shouting that vicious animals need to be muzzled. I asked him how am I supposed to attach one? He starts getting even more excitable and starts saying “I just can’t treat it!” over and over again. Well, by this time I’m getting kind of ticked off myself and tell him he needs to follow his hippocratic oath for vets and treat McCthulhu. He gets all snarky and tells me there is no hippocratic oath for vets.
So I take a different tack. I tell thim that if he refuses to treat McCthulhu, I would register an official complaint with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Dark and Unholy Creatures. The vet asked me what kind of freak organization was that? And I just stared at him and told him that he really, REALLY didn’t want to find out.
So the finally vet calms down a bit and he agrees to prescribe McCthulhu some antibioltics. He told me he has no idea what dosage McCthulhu would need, so he just wrote me a scrip for 20 refills. He also offered me $200 cash if I promised to never, ever bring McCthulhu in again. I thought that was reasonable, so I took his money and left with McCthulhu.
Good news is I did get the scrip filled and McCthulu took the whole bottle, including the plastic(maybe he needs more roughage in his diet?). And it seems to be working as it’s only sneezed off one tentacle today and seems to be more perky. It also snarls at me with more ferocity and vigor when I post the Paul threads. So things are looking up.
Bad news is I lost my vet, and the $200 might pay for the antibiotic refills if I have to buy a bottle a day.
Gotta go for now. McCthulhu has one of the neighbors treed.
Bill’s a lifeguard and can use a defibrillator, but I don’t think he has the intestinal fortitude to observe childbirth.
Don’t get Darksheare going on about rabbits - we’ll all have nightmares!
Hey Darks! Long time no chat. Yeah, I know it’s my fault. If you only knew! Counting on a turn around this year.
As someone who has been keeping exotic pets for several years, I’d say you’ve done pretty well. You could try a reptile specialist - most major cities have at least one - if the antibiotics don’t help.
Or just mix up some tea-tree oil solution in a sprayer and spritz it generously, from a safe distance. If nothing else, McChtlulu will smell pleasantly clean.
LOL, the rabbitoids aren’t that scary.
Are they?
***Grins and waves***
Hi Sweets!
Been an interesting past few days.
My car battery died, and then my hood release broke.
So now the car is down at the mechanics.
Bad luck.
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