Can you say OUCH?

BANGOR, Maine – Cross-country skiers who set out on a crisp, moonlit night for a peaceful outing in Bangor's city forest are being targeted by a least one ornery and territorial owl. Over the past three weeks, at least eight skiers and a few romping dogs apparently have fallen victim to a great horned owl that swoops down from a tree with talons outstretched and smacks them on the head.
Jim Allen of Bangor said he was skiing in the dark on East Trail in the Rolland F. Perry City Forest when he got hit.
"I've got my headlamp on, and all of a sudden, I felt a whack in the back of my head and this stinging, and I understood what everybody was talking about," said Allen, said he who screamed and waved his poles. His thick winter hat protected him from scratches.
Others haven't been so lucky. Dr. Dan Cassidy, a local physician and avid night skier, said three skiers suffered small lacerations, but none needed stitches to close their wounds.
Cassidy has been documenting owl attacks after one of the noctural birds swooped down on him in nearby Orono in January. He was able to identify it as a great horned owl, and he and others suspect that one or more of those owls are the culprits in the Bangor attacks.
"It's the boldest noctural raptor and the one that has the best reputation for the occasionally bizarre," said Charlie Todd, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
City Forester Brian Dugas posted warning signs Friday at three entry points to the forest, alerting skiers and hikers about the threat of owl attacks.
Allen has been back in the forest twice since Tuesday's owl attack, an incident he says he won't soon forget.
"They say ... there's no sound at all when an owl flies. So you don't hear them coming," he said. "I believe it. Because I never knew anything was coming. I was just skiing merrily along."

Georgia inmate arrested trying to get back in jail

WOODBINE, Ga. – Authorities say they arrested an escaped jail inmate trying to sneak back into the lockup with cigarettes allegedly stolen from a nearby store.
Sheriff Tommy Gregory said Saturday that 25-year-old Harry Jackson had opened a door to the exercise yard and climbed the outer fence.
Deputies found a jail door unlocked early Saturday and were looking for the inmate. They spotted Jackson trying to come back in and found 14 packs of cigarettes they believe were stolen from a convenience store about a block away.
Jackson faces new charges of breaking out of jail and burglary. He was already in jail in Camden County in far southeast Georgia for charges including possession of a controlled substance and violating probation.


OOOOOOOOkkkk. He escaped to steal cigarettes, THEN HE CAME BACK!!! Proof positive inbreeding creates idiots! lol

Rare Arizona Jaguar Euthanized

AP – A collared jaguar nicknamed Macho B is seen in this February 2009 photo provided by the Arizona Game …
A rare jaguar captured and collared in Arizona two weeks ago was euthanized after falling ill, state game officials said.

The jaguar was the only one spotted in the United States in more than a decade. Officials captured the cat Feb. 18 as part of a program to study bears and mountain lions. A procedure had previously been put in place to attach a satellite collar to any such fortuitously captured jaguar, so wildlife experts could monitor its movements to learn more about the extremely rare creatures.

The jaguar stopped moving, however.

Biologists found the male jaguar, brought it to a zoo, and he was put down that day. Officials say the cat, named Macho B, suffered kidney failure, common among old cats.

Macho B was first spotted by automatic trail cameras in 1996 when he was about age 2 or 3. He was thought to be 15 or 16 - relatively old for jaguars - when he was euthanized.

"This is an unfortunate and disappointing situation," said Gary Hovatter, deputy director of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. "We were looking forward to using the data acquired from Macho B to learn more about the species use of the borderland habitats in order to further conserve the species as a whole."

Sad course of action

The cat had dropped from 118 pounds at the time of his capture last month to just 99.5 pounds Monday.

The decision to euthanize was made in consultations between the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Phoenix Zoo, according to the statement.

"It is a sad, but appropriate course of action to euthanize this animal given the hopelessly terminal nature of his condition," said Steve Spangle, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Arizona field supervisor.

A necropsy (animal autopsy) will be performed to learn more about the jaguar's condition and to possibly provide clues to how long the animal had been sick.

In a statement released yesterday, officials did not say whether anything they might or might not have contributed the animal's demise. But they did say: "The jaguar's capture was guided by protocols developed in case a jaguar was inadvertently captured in the course of other wildlife management activities. The plan, which was created in consultation with leading jaguar experts, includes a protocol for capture, sedation and handling."

Big cats

Jaguars (Panthera onca) are the biggest cats in the Western Hemisphere. They once ranged from southern South America to the southern United States. By the late 1900s, none were thought to exist north of Mexico, but two independent sightings in 1996 confirmed jaguars still reached as far north as Arizona and New Mexico.

Remote cameras have also photographed jaguars in the Amazon and in central Mexico, where they're also rare.

Jaguars have been protected outside of the United States under the Endangered Species Act since 1973. That protection was extended to jaguars in the United States in 1997, the year after their presence here was confirmed.

Hello to every one! I am on vacation this week, and a good thing too. I have a cold. Bleah... Mom brought me some cough syrup, orange juice, and the best thing for a fever, ice cream sandwiches! lol
I have been delegated to the 12-9 shift at work now. Since I have a fixed schedule, the boss says it wouldn't be fair to make anyone close all the time, so I get to do it. Does that make sense to anyone out there? In any case, I get to sleep in now:-)

Any body home?

This is another photo of my pen pal's Chinese Crested dog. I think he is beautiful!

hooray for baggy pants! LOL

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Authorities said a burglary suspect was literally caught with his pants down while trying to run away. A deputy responded to an alarm at a convenient store early Tuesday morning and reported seeing a 37-year-old man exiting through a smashed-out front door while carrying several packs of cigarettes.
Deputies said the man tried to flee, but the handfuls of cigarettes prevented him from holding up his pants, which fell down and tripped him before he could make it out of the parking lot.
The man was charged with criminal m