Elk Encounters

I am yucky today; didn't sleep well, and awoke with all the symptoms of a cold. It's still cool and damp here, so I declined to walk the red kids today. I'm gonna stay here at home and drink hot tea with honey and eat chicken noodle soup - and I'm going to try not to nap, so I'll hopefully sleep well tonight. The kits are curled up together in the bed, and Gimpy has been by and stuffed himself with peanuts. The critters currently in the news here are the elk. When we went to the Scottish Irish Festival in Estes Park, the announcer made a joke about it being the beginning of the elk rut season, and how much bagpipes and an elk whistle can sound alike. All of what he said is true... and this week a woman trying to catch her neighbors' loose dog was attacked by a bull elk in the woods behind her house. The elk tossed her around with his horns, and did moderate damage - including a one-inch deep wound from his antlers in her back, near the spine. She called her husband on her cell phone as soon as she encountered the elk, and as he was nearby, he drove home ASAP- to find her dazed and bleeding at the foot of their driveway. - And, over in Aurora, near the Denver Airport, a couple of long-time ranchers saw two elk bulls that had been battling each other along with a barbed wire fence. The two bulls were bound together by the wire entwined in their antlers. DoW was called, but after waiting two hours, the ranchers took matters into their own hands. They heel roped each elk, and put them on the ground. Then they took wire clippers and cut their horns free of over 40 feet of tangled barbed wire (at which time DoW arrived and complained that the ranchers were trying to incur harm on themselves). The ranchers then loosened the heel ropes on both elk and they trotted off together, away from the men. And a man heard some loud splashing coming from his backyard, "like a giant washing machine," he said. On going to look at his pool, he found a bull elk had broken through the pool cover and was swimming around, and trying to climb the pool cover to get back out. The home owner had to cut his pool cover off, in order for the elk to get to the low end of the pool and clamber out... Can you imagine trying to explain that to your insurance company? (At least the man has a video of the incident for proof.)

Professor Ward Churchill has had his review by Judge Naves, who stayed with his original decision, stating that Churchill did not deserve to be re-hired by CU Boulder, and that he should not receive any money for lost income. Churchill's lawyer has said that there will be an appeal to a higher court. ... In Virginia, a third horse has tested positive for the West Nile virus. ... And I was upset to hear of the murder of a part-time Census taker in rural Kentucky. This man was a substitute teacher at local schools, and was performing an innocuous tally on housing and heating costs in Clay County. He was found hanging in the Daniel Boone National Forest with the word "Fed" written on his chest. He was in an area that has recently been known as one that produces methamphetamine and the poor man probably asked questions of the wrong person - but that in no way, shape, or form excuses his murder. Please say a quick prayer for this substitute teacher who was trying to make ends meet by working for his government.