TGIF!!!

Yesterday afternoon in the 106 degrees heat and blazing sun, I decided to wash some mini-blinds. Yes, I would do something so insane. While I was outside in the way back of the back yard trying to give myself a heat stroke, I looked up and this cow watching me. Just watching and chewing her cud. I said "yeah, its freakin' hot" to her and she jumped then mooed, trotted off, then looked back at me. She acted like I was an alien or something. I know she knows what humans are, I see the elderly man who owns them feeding her and the rest of the herd! Cattle were put on this Earth for us humans to eat, I am so damn sure of that fact. They have got to be the stupidest creatures roaming the planet. If you disagree with me, please c'mon along with me this fall when I'll be working cattle up at the CB Ranch helping with the fall steer shipping. You will then agree with me 100% after that experience and relish the next time you sink your chompers into a medium-rare ribeye.


Dumb Cow............

Today I was not so ambitious in the cleaning department, but I did clean Wee One's room, picked up all the toys, moved his train set back inside his room. I also set up his race car set and put all his books in order in his bookshelf. After I finished vacuuming, putting clean sheets on his bed, then making it and fluffing up his stuffed animals....Wee One jumps up onto his bed, looks at me and says "mom, sweeeeeeeeet" which is his version of "niiiiiice". So far, it is still clean and orderly.


This was the sky yesterday afternoon, I was very much wishing for a big rain. Of course we didnt get it. Instead it was just hot and windy. There was a wildfire nearby, I heard the firetrucks go out lastnite and the smoke smell was strong this morning. Today the sky looks different and not a possibility of rain in the forecast......sigh.


I took this in the front yard near the gate by the barn. This is a small one, there are more and bigger ones in the yard and pasture. I thought about doing a little rain dance under the big shady tree but I was thirsty and needed to be indoors when Wee One awoke from his afternoon sietsa.


One thing that bothers me is when people are so narrow-minded that the idea of something is NOT possible because they have NEVER experienced it first-hand. I can only imagine how Choctaw Man feels! I bet he is frustrated and angry no one will listen. Well, Mr. Erick Atkison-I BELIEVE you. I have never laid eyes on a true black panther in Oklahoma, but I did see a young mountain lion that was very dark, almost a dark brown, son #1 also witnessed with me, this big cat sighting a few years ago. It was a big cat, no mistaking that. If you see one, you know what they are when you lay eyes on it, there is no mistaking it for a coyote, fox, or some other animal. They move totally different than any animal I have hunted or observed in the wild. Here is the story:

Choctaw (AP) - A Choctaw man says a leopard is on the loose and is killing
his livestock.Erick Atkison says a black leopard has killed more than 200
animals on his 30 acre ranch during the past two years including llamas, goats,
chickens and turkeys.State wildlife officials aren't sure what is getting
Atkison's livestock.Game warden Wade Farrar says he believes the attacker may be
pit bull dogs while Kevin Grant with the state Forestry Department says a
leopard is a possibility.Grant says a lion and a leopard have been found in
Oklahoma after escaping captivity.Atkison believes the animal has escaped or
been set free and he plans to kill it and says he'll take the remains to the
state Capitol to show people he knows what he's been talking about.

I've spent a lot of hours with some old-timers here in Oklahoma. Probably because cowboy and ranch work doesnt offer an IRA or a retirement plan. An old Cowboy and dear friend I met immediately upon my move to Oklahoma always spoke of the black panthers. He said he had hunted and killed quite a few in his younger days and that they so in fact exist. My father-in-law, a big fur trapper in his day, has trapped 1 and even has a worn black and white picture of it. Neither of these old-timers have ever embellished their stories or have ever been untruthful in any way to me. They are cut from a cloth that we no longer see much of. I suppose it comes from the times they were raised in and the values that were important back in those days.

Anyhow, I believe there are black panthers in Oklahoma. The cougars or mountain lions are called 'panthers' or 'big cats'. No one native to my area calls them anything else. I have seen a few very good sightings myself and have viewed many of thier tracks. They are abundant in Oklahoma, more than people or the Game Warden wants to admit. Attacks are getting more common. Mountain Lion Attacks from 2001 to Now

18 September. At dusk, world class kick boxer (over 100 victories) Karina Jackson, 35, was attacked by a cougar at her home about seven miles east of Newkirk, Oklahoma, near the Arkansas River. She had gone outside to check on a litter of American Staffordshire Terriers in a pen located about 75 feet from her house. Noticing a puppy was out of the pen, she went into a neighboring hay field to retrieve him. She heard something rustling in the tall weeds at the edge of the field. Not seeing anything she continued toward the puppy. Suddenly she felt something hit her in the upper part of her left arm and she was knocked down. "It felt like I got kicked by a horse or a cow." Picking herself up, she saw a large cat running away from her. Frightened and stunned, she only realized she had been injurred after she quickly returned the puppy to it's pen, ran to the house, and then noticed her arm felt wet.

Jackson was treated on the scene by EMT's, then she received 29 stitches to close the 4 gashes at Christi Oklahoma Regional Medical Center at Ponca City(35 minutes from my area). Kay County Investigating Officer, Deputy Michael Kent, met with Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) Game Warden Tracy Daniel at the hospital where they observed Jackson's wounds and agreed they were from a medium size cat scratch.
Two weeks previously Jackson saw the same animal running across the road in front of her as she was driving home. "I had to lock it up to keep from hitting him," she said. Earlier that same day, she had noticed the large cat in a nearby field. Those sightings had prompted her to contact Daniel, who in turn contacted some trappers to try to catch the animal. About September 11, 2002, Jackson saw the cougar again in her yard, drinking from a water bucket by an old windmill. During that sighting, the cat ran a short distance, jumped a fence, and then stood and looked at her. She picked up a bunch of apples and threw them at him. September 13, 2002, Kay County Undersheriff Buddy Thomas said that Carl Clapp, of Cedar Vale, Kansas, was called to the scene with his hunting dogs. "We're not going to take any chances if there's an animal out there. If we see any sign of the cat, maybe we can do something about it." Thomas also said that the sheriff's office has received reports of big cats in the same Arkansas River valley east of Newkirk, but the reports have never been substantiated. Despite many previous reports, Thomas said the cougar encounter was an "unusual happening, not common around these parts." Others further speculated that because the cat seemed accustomed to humans, this could be a feral cat--one released or escaped from captivity, now wild.
Despite game warden Daniel's claim that their department hasn't been able to substantiate cougar presence in Oklahoma from numerous sightings, the presence of cougars in Oklahoma has been verified, with two cougar kills in recent years in Cimarron County. One cougar was hit by a vehicle three years ago, and another was shot by a landowner in his yard last spring. Sources: (Rural Newkirk Woman Victim Of Cougar Attack; The Newkirk Herald Journal; Wayne White; 09/26/2002) (K-State Research and Extension News; K-State to Record Kansas Puma Sightings; Kathleen Ward, Communications Specialist; 10/15/2002)

These cats are magnificant. They usually do not go looking for trouble but easy prey is hard to pass up. As people move into their wilderness, these animals will be encountered more. Some day, I hope humans realize that cougars, bears, and the other animals that are a potential threat to people, wouldnt be such a threat if we left their homes alone and quit populating their areas. Please do not misunderstand me, I think an animal that attacks humans needs killed. I also would not hesitate giving one of these gorgeous wild animals a bullet if I felt it was threatening me, my family, or my animals. It would be dead in a New york minute. I just think sometimes, it is our responsibility as the smarter species to compromise with nature.