If you don't find this cool...

...nothing is cool. give up. I'm talking about the picture posted below this blog entry. So the friend of a wife of a friend of a brother snapped this pic while hunting in Montana. the afforementioned brother told me at one point the dogs realized this cat was tracking their group and proceeded to give chase, eventually pinning it back on the ledge. The idiotic dogs, who collectively reached the decision that their 7 to 1 advantage would prove superior over satan in the form of a cougar, talked puppy smack for five minutes. Apparently that was enough time for them to figure out they we're all going to die in severed, bloody shreds if they didn't bounce....like now. which they did.
but speaking of animals that could make abstract art out of a human body, i thought this situation was so sad. one of the prerequisites for living in alaska was signing a pledge wherein you vowed to read more articles about animals than people. when it's commonplace to spot a moose trotting down the street or bedding down in your backyard right in the middle of the city with half the state's population, you realize that grabbing the morning latte is not your only concern. i read alot about the wolf situation while in alaska and have been delighted to see that the Washington Post has latched on to the saga of this wolf pack. I'm not delighted about what's happening up there. although i'm not an animal behavioral scientist by any means (although my college residence did allow me some unusual insight into the issue), i do understand that in order to gather useful data on any particular species it takes TIME. four decades is so much to invest into these wolves, but still not enough. wolves are plentiful in alaska-so plentiful that hunters have been given license to take them out from aboard airplanes in order to diminish the devastating effect they've had upon certain moose populations. Therefore, my argument isn't with a few wolves dying. also, although i do take issue with many types of hunting, namely the kind done over a computer (way to go Texas)..., that's not my issue here so much either. It's the state of Alaska's unwillingness to take special precautions to safegaurd and encourage the scientific value of this particular pack. It scares me that nobody with adequate political might had the balls to be vociferous about this issue...three democratic senators from other states won't do the trick. These wolves are being slaughtered right in front of our eyes.
If they had had an income tax up there, i would have taken them to school on my return....