Just a little postscript I found this morning to all the stuff about the Conservative Party Conference and the will-they/won’t they cancel the northern link to HS2:
“Rishi Sunak has been caught out after recording a video announcing HS2 was being scrapped despite claiming no decision had been reached for days afterwards.
Until yesterday the PM insisted no decision had been reached despite a clamour for answers. But a video released after his Tory Party Conference speech was clearly shot in Downing Street - meaning it would have been recorded before Sunday.”
So there we are - politics as performance art!
So as a distraction here are a couple of animal stories, the first another story about bears:
“A woman in Mexico shielded her son after a bear leaped on to a picnic table, inches from his face, and devoured the tacos and enchiladas meant for his birthday dinner.
Silvia Macías of Mexico City had travelled to the Chipinque Park on the outskirts of the northern city of Monterrey to celebrate the 15th birthday of her son, Santiago, who has Down’s syndrome.
Soon after they sat down to eat, the bear showed up and gulped down french fries, enchiladas, tacos and salsa. A video shot by her friend Angela Chapa shows Macías sitting stoically, inches from the bear’s mouth, holding Santiago and shielding his eyes with her hand. Macías kept her eyes downcast to avoid anything the bear might consider a challenge.
“The worst thing was that Santiago might get scared,” Macías said on Tuesday in an interview with the Associated Press. “Santiago is very afraid of animals … a cat or a dog, any animal scares him a lot.””
You can call me naive, but it seems to me that if you know there is a possibility that a bear might show up (even if you think it might not do so until later in the day) and your son is scared stiff of any animal and liable to scream, why would you take your son to that place?
People are a little bit crazy!
The second story is not at all amusing. It seems there has been another case of someone being killed by a dog believed to be an American XL bully. I wonder again why anyone needs a dog of that kind.
And here’s a link to an article about being cat people or dog people. People do serious studies about this sort of thing, and tell us that cat people are more introverted and dog people more extroverted. (Quite where that leaves Granddaughter Number One, I do not know. She has both a dog and a cat, both of which are a bit odd and suffer from anxiety - apparently!) it seems that it can even affect your political leanings; in the USA dog people are more likely to vote Republican. And yet, Biden has his large, rather bitey dog in the White House!
The studies say nothing about people like me who are neither cat people nor dog people!
Oh, here’s a third story. Guide dogs for the blind have been around for ever it seems. Comfort animals and support animals are a more recent phenomenon. Schools and universities like to be very up to date and sometimes have such animals available to calm anxious youngsters down. Some cafes advertise themselves as “dog-friendly”. There are even cafes inhabited by lots of cats, which strikes me as rather unhealthy but then I am not a cat person. Anyway, here’sna story about an emotional support alligator:
“28 Sept 2023
Animals including guide dogs and police horses often provide assistance to fans at sporting events around the world. But what happens when the support being offered at a stadium comes from an alligator?
Yes, you read that correctly - a 5ft-long American reptile being walked on a harness and lead like a regular family pet has been on duty outside a stadium in the United States.
But, WallyGator - a working emotional support alligator - was reportedly denied entrance into Citizens Bank Park to watch the Philadelphia Phillies take on the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday in Major League Baseball.
Phillies fan Jon McCann highlighted Wally's plight on his Instagram account, showing the gentle giant giving hugs to fans outside the Philadelphia stadium as the home side celebrated a 7-6 victory.
The stadium's policy on support animals states: "Certified service dogs or service dogs in training for guests with special needs are welcome. All other animals are prohibited."
Wally has thousands of followers on social media and is owned by Joie Henney from Pennsylvania, who rescued Wally from Orlando, Florida in 2015.
Henney told Beastlyexternal-link in 2020 that Wally is his "best buddy" and "loves giving kisses", and according to another post by McCann, sleeps in the same bed as his owner.
As well as being a baseball fan, Henney says Wally has helped him "dramatically improve" the deep depression he had been experiencing before his reptile pal came along.
"I've never met an alligator that will not bite you," Henney told CBS Evening Newsexternal link last year. "You fool around the head like this (Joe puts his hand in Wally's mouth), their instinct is to grab you [with their teeth] - but he does not do it.
"You can reach in and rub his tongue, he refuses to close his mouth, but we don't know why," added Henney. Which is a relief, as Wally has an estimated bite of 3000 pounds per square inch.
So it seems the only way Wally will be allowed entry to an MLB game anytime soon is to grow some fur and start barking like a dog. Until then, he'll have to cheer on the Phillies from outside the stadium”.
There you go. Only in America … I hope!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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