The middle daughter has turned up with two nippers, each cuddling a spoilt, furry, charming rabbit. One looks like a large wild rabbit, the other is plainly of thoroughbred extraction having nice coloured and white bits.
I've got nothing against rabbits provided they aren't in the house much. And as I say, these are charming creatures. Butter wouldn't melt in their mouths.
All the same, when the cat wakes up late at night and starts looking round for a juicy morsel to murder and leave us as a present, these conies will be at risk unless they are shut in a cat-proof container. They won't be able to interpret the sound of its new bell, they're too dumb unlike rats and mice which are streetwise. I anticipate blood and tears somewhere down the line. Hope I'm wrong of course.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 7 Aug 15 at 18:59
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Rabbits go nice in a stew with dumplings Sire. Similar to chicken, but nicer.
Just saying like.
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Not keen myself Perro. Don't even like dark chicken meat. Funny really because I happily eat hamburgers made of (good quality round here I must admit) beef slurry... Of course a nice beefsteak or slice of venison is even better, the real thing.
I like puddings and (non-chicken though) pies a lot. Loved the beef and kangaroo pies in Oz, the home of pies and sauce...
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Not keen myself Perro. Don't even like dark chicken meat. Funny really because I happily eat hamburgers made of (good quality round here I must admit) beef slurry... Of course a nice beefsteak or slice of venison is even better, the real thing.
I like puddings and (non-chicken though) pies a lot. Loved the beef and kangaroo pies in Oz, the home of pies and sauce... You fill the depression in the top of the mass-produced pie with ketchup or whatever comes to hand, I was taught. Usually did the trick for me.
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>> The middle daughter has turned up with two nippers, each cuddling a spoilt, furry, charming
>> rabbit.
>>
>> ...these conies will be at risk unless they are shut in a cat-proof container.
Are they in a container, or is it up to you to find something?
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Nowt to do wi'me, Squire. Thank the Lord. I live in fear of being asked.
The nippers aren't entirely useless I must admit. They may manage something.
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I wouldn't worry too much, by Christmas you'll have so many the cat won't be able to keep up even when he has his mates around.
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"The middle daughter has turned up with two nippers, each cuddling a spoilt, furry, charming rabbit."
But, whatever you do, don't listen to anyone who tells you that rabbits can live amicably with guinea pigs - they CAN'T.
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I know of someone as a child who had a rabbit. I bit someone. The child's mother took the rabbit to the butcher!
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Tasty things Rabbits. Healthy food too. Bit like Pigeon (healthy).
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Bit like Pigeon (healthy).
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We love it our house, not used that much I don't think by most people. Used the last lot from the freezer recently, very nice in a stir fry as an alternative to chicken.
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>> I know of someone as a child who had a rabbit. I bit someone. The
>> child's mother took the rabbit to the butcher!
>>
Tough crowd, I bet the dog hid when you went back and pee'd up the tree.
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When I was small by father bred rabbits for food. One for these was reprieved from death row and was my pet. Called Matilda it was and it lived for about 8 years I think. They make good pets.
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They'd last an afternoon here probably, once the Springer was bored with chasing them, he'd neck them without a second thought.
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Depends on the rabbit some of them are pretty big and can give a fair nip. I know of a rabbit that was getting bothered by a big lab, he give a real nip on the nose. Never bothered him again. Mind you spaniels are crackers.
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>> I know of someone as a child who had a rabbit. I bit someone. The
>> child's mother took the rabbit to the butcher!
>>
Why did you do that?
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We are long past the guinea pig and rabbit phase, thank goodness.
Those with a strain of wild rabbit in them seem to revert to type after a while, and spend their time trying to escape. We had one that made short work of gnawing its hutch to pieces, so we reinforced it with stout chicken wire. It gnawed through that too, and next morning there was a tell-tale hole and it had gone to rejoin its relatives.
Another pair, allegedly docile and friendly, kicked each other to death when left one day. It was a horrible sight. One had its stomach ripped out, but it had managed to decapitate the other before dying.
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>> One had its stomach ripped out, but it had managed to decapitate the other before dying.
Are you sure a weasel hadn't got in and done its thing CP?
I know rabbits are strong, have claws and can kick. But the ones the nippers have here don't seem like that at all. I've just seen them, still being cuddled and still looking cute.
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>>
>> Are you sure a weasel hadn't got in and done its thing CP?
>>
We thought of that, but there was no sign of forced entry. (Temped to add "and the door had been locked on the inside" :) )
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>> Why did you do that?
I missed out the T.... IT bit someone, i.e. the rabbit.
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>> >> Why did you do that?
>>
>> I missed out the T.... IT bit someone, i.e. the rabbit.
>>
I realised that. It was my attempt at early morning humour.
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>> >> >> Why did you do that?
>> >>
>> >> I missed out the T.... IT bit someone, i.e. the rabbit.
>> >>
>> I realised that. It was my attempt at early morning humour.
I thought the joke was that you had bitten another child, and it had been blamed on the rabbit. Funnier than the truth...
And hence the dog joke below it.
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Yes I imagined he'd bitten someone and let the rabbit take the blame too...a good example of an undetectable error.
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Earlier today the nippers took one of the rabbits (the smaller cuter one) out of the cage to pet. The other one could be heard stamping angrily in its cage.
There was a grandchild's friend's mother here earlier for lunch, an Ulsterwoman. The conversation turned to Richard Adams's weird adult talking-animal novel Watership Down. She hadn't read the novel I think, but had seen the Disney (or similar) movie based on it, and noted its 'darkness' as a narrative.
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The latest thing seems to be leads, like dog leads, for the rabbits. I must say they are tolerant creatures.
But what next I can't help wondering? Lobsters on gold chains perhaps.
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>>
>> But what next I can't help wondering? Lobsters on gold chains perhaps.
>>
tinyurl.com/onnmsqv
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No wonder that monster's claws are restrained by sticky tape CGN. Makes you shudder to look at the brute.
That isn't a gold chain though. Sorry and so on.
I don't mind them so much freshly boiled, when I'm feeling peckish.
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>> leads, like dog leads, for the rabbits. I must say they are tolerant creatures.
The leads are attached to little harnesses that go round the rabbits' necks and behind their front legs, so even when they are dragged about a bit they aren't strangled. Must have cost a pretty penny at the pet shop.
Today the nippers have been trying to take closeup photos of the rabbits and attempting to interpret their ear positions - erect, laid back, one forward and one back, etc, while admiring the way they clean their whiskers.
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>>
>> think, but had seen the Disney (or similar) movie based on it, and noted its
>> 'darkness' as a narrative.
>>
There was famously a butcher's sign reading;
Watership Down -
You've read the book,
You've seen the film,
Now eat the cast!
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Rabbits' eyes are placed on the sides of their heads, so that a rabbit standing or sitting up with its ears erect can detect sound or movement on any side.
However because it can only see anything out of one of its eyes, never both at once, it hasn't got the binocular vision required to assess distance. As a result if you walk very slowly, with no sudden let alone sideways movements, directly towards a sitting rabbit you can get fairly close to it before it hears something or smells you and scarpers. Apparently it doesn't wonder why you are getting slowly bigger.
Predators - cats dogs and us among others - have binocular vision so that we can leap accurately on our prey.
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>>Predators - cats dogs and us among others - have binocular vision so that we can leap accurately on our prey.
Sharks and other predatory fish appear to manage without binocular vision.
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>> Sharks and other predatory fish appear to manage without binocular vision.
They have sonar or something.
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>>They have sonar or something.
Isn't evolution amazing: "the earliest known sharks date back to more than 420 million years ago"
" Sharks use the ampullae of Lorenzini to detect the electromagnetic fields that all living things produce"
"Ocean currents moving in the magnetic field of the Earth also generate electric fields that sharks can use for orientation and possibly navigation"
I wouldn't want to meet this on a dark (or any) night:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark#/media/File:Hexanchus_nakamurai_JNC2615_Eye.JPG
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I'm trying to remember the poem about the crocodile and his courteousness, but I can only remember the second verse:
How charmingly he seems to grin!
How neatly spreads his claws!
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws.
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How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin
How neatly spreads his claws
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws
Lewis Carroll
The poem is actually a parody of a moral verse by the now forgotten Isaac Watts
How doth the little busy Bee
Improve each shining Hour,
And gather Honey all the day
From every opening Flower!
How skilfully she builds her Cell!
How neat she spreads the Wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.
In works of Labour or of skill
I would be busy too:
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.
In books, or work, or healthful play
Let my first years be past,
That I may give for every Day
Some good account at last.
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Thank you CGN, not for the first time.
I thought it was 'every glitt'ring scale' but I may be wrong.
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Roald Dahl was good on crocodiles.
"No animal is half as vile
As Crocky–Wock, the crocodile.
On Saturdays he likes to crunch
Six juicy children for his lunch
And he especially enjoys
Just three of each, three girls, three boys.
He smears the boys (to make them hot)
With mustard from the mustard pot.
But mustard doesn't go with girls,
It tastes all wrong with plaits and curls.
With them, what goes extremely well
Is butterscotch and caramel.
It's such a super marvelous treat
When boys are hot and girls are sweet.
At least that's Crocky's point of view
He ought to know. He's had a few.
That's all for now. It's time for bed.
Lie down and rest your sleepy head.
Ssh. Listen. What is that I hear,
Galumphing softly up the stair?
Go lock the door and fetch my gun!
Go on child, hurry! Quickly run!
No stop! Stand back! He's coming in!
Oh, look, that greasy greenish skin!
The shining teeth, the greedy smile!
It's Crocky–Wock, the Crocodile!"
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Sharks have electrical sensors in their noses enabling them to home in on prey. They are such insensitive and voracious animals that they can sometimes be led to tear chunks out of themselves in a frenzy. Their eyesight is very poor but they can smell prey for miles in the sea if the currents are right.
Another main deep-sea predator, the barracuda, homes in on the wavy vibrations left by fleeing prey fish and being very fast, overtakes and seizes them.
We have a sperm whale's tooth on a shelf in the bathroom, a couple of pounds of solid ivory. We saw such a whale off NZ cooling it or getting warm on the surface, big thing 15 feet long. You wouldn't want to be mistaken for a juicy seal by one, you really wouldn't.
This post has vanished at least twice I think. Can't imagine why.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 15 Aug 15 at 20:19
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when I was in Vancouver last year I visited the Maritime museum and they have a very interesting collecting of engraved sperm whale teeth. Sounds boring but you have to remember that these things were engraved by whaling crews who had been at sea for two years and had one thing on their mind. Some very interesting designs. Would look good in your bathroom.
www.rcinet.ca/en/2013/03/25/theres-more-to-vancouver-maritime-museums-exhibit-than-whale-bone-porn/
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>> whaling crews who had been at sea for two years and had one thing on their mind. Some very interesting designs. Would look good in your bathroom.
No doubt CGN. But to put it delicately, do you think Herself would approve?
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>>This post has vanished at least twice I think. Can't imagine why.
Violet Elizabeth hates sharks?
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Oh dear. - Dog
