We have a new, hopefully temporary houseguest.
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| A 9-10" box turtle. |
Our home remodel is complete and we're now moving back into the house. On my way to get something or other, I saw this charming fellow on the roadside, hiding underneath a car. They're not native to this area, so I turned around to offer him a ride home. Someone at a nearby house told me where he lived, but the residents aren't home, so he's staying with us for the time being.
He's a lovely creature, but I'm not sure what people see in reptiles as pets.
Invasion
While I love to talk about doom and how bad things are, I'm actually pretty optimistic about America. Except for the invasion part. I follow a couple of border reporters on Twitter as well as the war correspondent par excellence, Michael Yon. They are all pushing the panic button over the end of Title 42. As far as I can tell, the MSM doesn't care.
Nonstop flow of illegal crossings here in Brownsville. Working on scripts in my car and look at the window and see another large group gathering for processing after crossing over. Border Patrol buses have been coming and going constantly. It’s going to be a very busy week. pic.twitter.com/9U9RNhzvnb
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 8, 2023
It's insane.
Bonus Content: Of Catholics And Hitlers
I'm making my way through My Battle With Hitler, an autobiographical look at a Catholic philosopher's interactions with the Third Reich. The author was German, but escaped Germany right after Hitler became chancellor. He found "refuge" is Austria, which gives you an idea of how well things went after that.
I'll blog more about this later because the topic is apropos our modern travails. Suffice for now to say two things:
- Just like the invasion across our southern border, the people of the time had no idea how big the forces arrayed against them were.
- It's interesting to see how individual Catholics, including theologians, priests, bishops and the pope made excuses for and deals with Hitler. Just like my bishop here in San Diego, they had no idea what time it was nor who their enemies were. Hitler told them over and over in word and deed that he hated them, but they would cling to any positive words out of his mouth and dismiss his evil as an aberration.
I think that a lot of exotic pets are more like slightly-mobile houseplants than anything else. They are interesting to look at, and are occasionally active and sometimes fun to feed and handle, but one doesn't generally cuddle with them or do things with them. If one wants a cuddly companion, well, that's what cats and dogs are for. We bred them to be that way. That's their purpose. No tamed wild animal is going to be able to compete for our affections with the ones that have been through thousands of generations of being bred to love us. Even domesticated farm animals like goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows, and horses make way better pets than any "exotic".
ReplyDeleteThat said, I like turtles and snakes that we find in the wild, and regularly rescue turtles from traffic. And I am concerned about the turtle you have found. If its "owners" are letting it get out where it could be run over by cars, then they are massively irresponsible and have got no business having a turtle. Or probably any other pet. I might cut them a little slack if it was some animal that is known for being an escape artist, like a goat or ferret. But if they can't keep a turtle from escaping . . .