Last Friday's sighting of a panther or black leopard has taken on a more sinister significance since we learnt that an elderly West Highland terrier belonging to friends in a nearby hamlet was found mysteriously and fatally mauled on Monday evening. I chaperoned our own, also elderly, terrier out for her late run last night, and found myself wanting to hum a jolly tune and stomp about more noisily than usual, as one does when walking through thick bracken to drive away dozing adders.
Big cats mark their territory with urine, and the markings allegedly smell much like fox pee, which means that round here you can't now walk anywhere without wondering if you are about to be summarily dismembered.
Apropos similar smells, someone once told my parents that dope smelt like BO. It was an unkind piece of misinformation, because every time we had a party and the dancing grew heated, there would be my folks sniffing the air suspiciously and suggesting coffee and coats.
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
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So can I get high by sniffing my armpit?
ReplyDeleteLet's see...
Man!
Rol - I'm awful glad that everyone else was out at that re-leaving do of yours!
ReplyDeleteOMG! Too scary to think there's a beast afoot, you'd better not let the little dog out by itself! Did you hear the explanation for these big cats, that they were normal housecats that had been beamed up into UFOs and enlarged by aliens? I think it's almost definitely that.
ReplyDeleteMarianne - I hadn't heard that, but it all makes sense now. I think something similar may have happened to my children.
ReplyDeleteAbout three years ago, the neighbours' cat was mauled to death by something that actually tore it to pieces on our front lawn. Very distressing for them, and I felt terrible - we found it and had to ring them. No easy way to tell someone something like that. The vet suggested stoats or foxes - a fox I could understand, but would/could a stoat take on a full-sized cat? So far ours have been unmolested, mostly because one is a massive coward and the other refuses to go outside ever.
ReplyDeleteLucy - How awful. However illogical, one can feel a degree of guilt that one's lawn was involved. Your cats sound very sensible.
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