It's nice to have a pet defending your ... its property. My first cat Tom, 1/2 of Tom & Jerry, had something in common with Finnley, his favorite spot was hidden under the forsythia where he could be our watchcat without being seen. No mice in the neighborhood and he was too slow to catch a bird, the bluejays caught HIM. When they dive bombed and pecked his head he ran for the house and sat on the window sill teeth chattering. Cats have a whole repertoire of sounds, when scared silly they make a chittering sound.

Sometimes they take on an animal that quickly turns the tables, Tom took on a possum. Fearing he'd be killed I took on the possum with my 32oz Louisville Slugger, the bloody thing just hissed at me. I'm not the sort to be beaten by a possum, I pummeled it thinking I'd leave a bloody mess on the ground, it still just hissed at me! Eventually it climbed out on a low branch of the Lonesome Pine, one good belt and it sailed over the fence, turned and hissed one last time and waddled away into the night. I came to the conclusion possums are made of rubber. Many years later in another galaxy far away I was relaxing on the porch one night when a neighborhood cat treed a racoon and ran up after it, BIG mistake. A moment later the cat let out a blood curdling scream, like LIGHTNING ran down the tree and disappeared behind a house.

With that in mind, I hope there are no bears in your end of Pennsy like there are along PA 609 that runs down the Delaware River. Before small towns sprang up connected by that 2 lane bacl road that thinks its a highway it was an Indian trail, before that it was a bear trail and still is. The actual trail runs from Albany to Baltimore, bears migrate... sort of. Every so often one is spotted in town and people freak out, instead of leaving the poor thing alone so that soon it would be on its merry way, it's CALL THE COPS!!! These days everything is call the cops, but I digress. A cop shows up, "Yep, that;s a bear alright.", then a couple of Game Wardens come with a dart rifle, tranquilize it, cage it, and haul it to a wilderness area where the unfortunate animal gets all confused thinking "Where am I?". Now WHY can't people just stay calm and watch from a safe distance? Hey, you don't have to go to the bears in a zoo when bears come to you!

Hey Boo Boo, let's go raid some pickanick baskets!