As this altercation with a mountain lion attests, don't count on your cheap-ass little pen to provide you protection when you need it. You've been walking around with a false sense of confidence, my friend:
Nell Hamm said she grabbed a four-inch-wide log and beat the animal with it, but it would not release its hold on her husband's head."Jim was talking to me all through this, and he said, 'I've got a pen in my pocket and get the pen and jab him in the eye,'" she said. "So I got the pen and tried to put it in his eye, but it didn't want to go in as easy as I thought it would."
When the pen bent and became useless, Nell Hamm went back to using the log.
I bet mountain lion eye is child's play for a Sharpie.
In the book The Beast In The Garden, you'll find frequent instances of cougars' lack of a live and let live policy. They're pretty kitties but awfully hidebound about eating something hidebound.
Posted by floridacracker at January 26, 2007 10:02 AMYou mean, cougars aren't proponents of "catch-and-release"?
Posted by: Jeff H at January 26, 2007 12:35 PMYou mean, cougars aren't proponents of "catch-and-release"?
Posted by: Jeff H at January 26, 2007 12:36 PMAsk me how shocked I am they conducted a conversation through this whole thing. Did she tell the cougar "Hold that thought ~ I'll be right back" as she headed off to scavenge for the next weapon?
An alligator wouldn't have waited.
Posted by: tree hugging sister at January 26, 2007 01:02 PMWhen my boys were younger I was always finding animal "things" in their room.
Like bird's nests, snake's skins, and the like.
So I payed no attention to the old, rusty TRAP that was hanging on the wall.
My boy had bought it at an antique shop for a dollar in Arkansas, and hung it on the wall with the bobcat skin, his guns, and other little keepsakes.
While alone one day, I moved the terrible thing, and since my brain is like a steel trap too, :) I knew I had a Big problem even before my hand had time to register the pain. A big,rusty problem, with a long clankety chain and hook trailing behind it. It was a sight.
Like the man in the story, I tryed to stay calm too, but when two female EMS people arrived and said, "What is it ?"
I came apart, they were my hope and didn't even know what it was they were suppose to do.
To make a long story short, I was eventually extracted by a passer by, but I know San Carlos Fire Dept. has to remember the lady who had the trap on her hand 'cause it sounded like this,...."Jesus!,Jesus!, Jesus!,...help!, Oh God!, Jesus!...and on and on !!!!
Didn't you leave the EMS at your house and start walking down the road clanking your chain and some man stopped in his truck and released the trap?
Posted by: Donnah at January 26, 2007 07:43 PMOh my God! That trap story sounds horrific. I cringe just imagining it.
When I was a kid, my brother and I found an old trap in the bush, near our cottage. Luckily, the one we found had already been sprung at some point. We told our dad about it, and he came out with us and demonstrated what it could do with a hefty tree branch, about the size of a small boy's ankle. Needless to say, message received.
The man who was attacked by the cougar is lucky he survived. I've been told they clamp onto the head or neck, and they don't let go until dinner time (theirs, that is). A few years ago, when I lived down in Vancouver, I saw this story on the news:
http://www.igorilla.com/gorilla/animal/2002/cougar_attack_vancouver.html
I had almost forgotten about that story until Donnah's article. I remember thinking at the time that that guy is my new hero.
As luck would have it, last week I e-mailed my resume to a cellulose mill in Port Alice (never been there). Now that I realise the connection, I'm having second thoughts! Though I would like to meet Dave Parker. Donnah, you may have just pre-emptively saved my life!
Nancy -- hope your hand is all better.
Posted by: rg at January 26, 2007 08:18 PMThanks, the hand was fine,
No, Donnah, the EMS was parked at my house but I had went to a neighbors (ran there with the rattling chain behind me)
My little cracker neice , who was about 4 at the time, came over and looked through the hedges.
She ran off and got real help. She said,"Aunt Nancy got the trap on her hand." God bless her. One of the EMS girls called for back-up, and the other one wanted to sedate me. (With a gun...at a distance, I think).
I was looking down and heard one of the girls say, "Get back Sir" I saw a pair of men's boots and knew I would be out of this. One stomp made enough space for me to snatch my paw out.
I saved the entrapment...I don't know why.
I was going to recommend using a Zebra F-301 (black ink only though - blue ink is ok for smaller things like house cats) but now all of this steel-jawed leghold trap stuff has me looking for heavier duty office supplies. I'll have to get back to you because all I'm coming up with is one of those Coyote brand paper cutters.
Posted by: tfhr at January 26, 2007 09:49 PMyea,... keep looking, it has to pry and stab :)
Posted by: the real Nancy at January 26, 2007 11:07 PMStaple removers would work on bug-eyed attackers; a rabid pug, say.
http://www.florida-cracker.org/archives/002363.html
My step-brother had a trap like that. It took the two of us to set it!
Your step-brother? hmm.
Does he have a Florida Cracker connection?
There may be a connection, among others. The trap was likely not the most dangerous thing he ever hung on the wall.
Posted by: The Real Nathan at January 28, 2007 09:01 PMMark Steyn wrote an article about a misprint in a survival guide about Cougars. It should have said 'raise your arms to frighten the cougar', but the misprint said 'raise your anus to frighten the cougar'. Steyn commented that the cat would probably have gotten uncomfortable & run away saying 'Geez, wonder what he meant by that?'.
Meanwhile, don't go out the door without your trusty swiss army knife. You never know when you'll have to tell a lion 'Back off or I'll cut you, beetch!'
Posted by: Carl H. at January 28, 2007 09:57 PM