Tiger Attack, Lessons Learned
I'm trying to be more self-aware about my own opinions and feelings, and not hate on quite so many people quite so indiscriminately.
And yet, when I read this story about the teenage boy who was killed and his friends maimed as a result of taunting a zoo tiger, I can't help but think of them as prime candidates for the Darwin Awards. Are we that removed from reality that our children don't understand the clear and present danger of taunting a tiger? It's true, they probably thought that the zoo, a public institution, would not show tigers in an environment that might leave them prone to an attack. That is, in fact, why they climbed the poll while drunk and high, and began shouting at the flesh-eating predator.
This reminds me of being 8 years-old, watching my brother and his friends agitate a bee's nest. They would capture the bees in a jar, shake it violently, let them go and run away. My brother was a dumb-ass. He got stung in 7 or 8 places that day. I still remember the deep satisfaction of watching from a distance as he ran home and cried to mom about those bees. More evidence of mankind's yawning deathwish that sits at our collective core. We can't look directly at it, but we can sense it, just slightly, with our fingertips.
And in other news, kitties are wonderful!
Yesterday blue_estro was over borrowing the interweb, when she made a discovery; Kittypants had decided to join her, snuggling up to her side. She noted two things: For one thing, Kittypants likes to be squeezed. She's like a furry squeezebox. The more you squeeze the louder she purrs. And the other thing she noticed is that kittypants loves tummy skritches.
These are things that I thought that I had invented, that through sheer kitty know-how I had mastered my pet and taught her to love squeezing and bellyrubs. When, in fact, my cat had been training me and was now moving on to training my friends. My cat is so clever! And she makes it all look so easy.
And yet, when I read this story about the teenage boy who was killed and his friends maimed as a result of taunting a zoo tiger, I can't help but think of them as prime candidates for the Darwin Awards. Are we that removed from reality that our children don't understand the clear and present danger of taunting a tiger? It's true, they probably thought that the zoo, a public institution, would not show tigers in an environment that might leave them prone to an attack. That is, in fact, why they climbed the poll while drunk and high, and began shouting at the flesh-eating predator.
This reminds me of being 8 years-old, watching my brother and his friends agitate a bee's nest. They would capture the bees in a jar, shake it violently, let them go and run away. My brother was a dumb-ass. He got stung in 7 or 8 places that day. I still remember the deep satisfaction of watching from a distance as he ran home and cried to mom about those bees. More evidence of mankind's yawning deathwish that sits at our collective core. We can't look directly at it, but we can sense it, just slightly, with our fingertips.
And in other news, kitties are wonderful!
Yesterday blue_estro was over borrowing the interweb, when she made a discovery; Kittypants had decided to join her, snuggling up to her side. She noted two things: For one thing, Kittypants likes to be squeezed. She's like a furry squeezebox. The more you squeeze the louder she purrs. And the other thing she noticed is that kittypants loves tummy skritches.
These are things that I thought that I had invented, that through sheer kitty know-how I had mastered my pet and taught her to love squeezing and bellyrubs. When, in fact, my cat had been training me and was now moving on to training my friends. My cat is so clever! And she makes it all look so easy.