AH> We had a bear up here (Baltimore) a few years
 AH> back that apparently wandered all the way down
 AH> along I-70 from Western Maryland to just outside
 AH> the Baltimore Beltway.
I'm going to be in Baltimore in August (I think it's
August), I'll have to observe your lack of wilderness
when I come up.
 AH> Being that Baltimore isn't exactly wild enough
 AH> for Bears (just Orioles and Ravens), he was
 AH> captured and taken back to a Western MD. state
 AH> park and released.
I'm glad he wasn't injured.  I just finished reading
a book, EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG by Lloyd Pye, and
in it he asserts that 25% of habitable land worldwide,
has never been mapped, and in most cases, we've never
even set foot on it.  In this area (the Gulf Coast)
most of that land is swamp and marshland.  It seems
possible to me that there is abundant large wildlife
that we just never see...and of course, you can't
leave a print in either swamp or marsh for long with
all the rain we get.  ;>
 AH> On a cat note, there are continually reports of
 AH> cougars in the parks along the Patapsco and
 AH> Gunpowder Rivers (sources of Baltimore's water),
 AH> but none have been confirmed.  If there actually
 AH> are a few cougars left, they obviously have
 AH> learned to stay well out of sight of humans.  I
 AH> hope the reports are true.  *adh*
I wonder how one confirms something like that.  I mean,
an eyewitness in a crime is confirmation, why not a
witness to wildlife?  :l  Is your soil composition so
that no pawprints are found?
Merry Kittenmas.  I found a 1-foot fake Christmas tree
in a box in the closet...an obvious earlier attempt to
celebrate the season.  Brought it out, put it on the
table and plugged in the lights (I hadn't undecorated
it before packing).  Cassie was on it before the lights
started to blink.  She sniffed, and bit a branch, I
hissed and touched her head, she backed off and glared
at me. She grabbed again at a branch, I hiss-touched
her head. She dabbled a paw at a garland, hiss-touch,
glare. This fencing-match/test-of-wills went on for a
good twenty minutes.  Cassie caved and left.  Jenny
arrived and gave the tree a thorough sniffing over and
decided it was beneath her dignity to pay any attention
to the item. Piper took her place...sniff-bite, hiss-
touch, crouch with branch in mouth, hiss-touch, pry open
mouth, remove branch, praise cat, grab branch, hiss-
touch, glare, grab branch, hiss-touch, crouch, back off,
look bored, grab branch, hiss-touch, disengage branch
from mouth, turn tree to dry area.  *I* gave up after a
half hour and put the tree in a locked room.  Charlie
never even got a chance to check out the tree.  'Tis the
season.  
... .                                               0-m
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