BBs Blog

Elephants are painting self portraits, and a horse named Cholla has had some of his paintings sold and exhibited in several art shows. Are we discovering that animals are smarter, and perhaps have much more of an aesthetic sense that we previously believed? According to a story I read, elephants have been drawing pictures in the sand using sticks and other objects for a long time. However, in all the years I have owned and been around horses, I have never seen nor heard of horses doing that. Yet after being given a paintbrush, Cholla took to painting, well, like a duck to water. If animals do have a more developed aesthetic sense than we humans previously realized, will giving them tools like watercolors and paintbrushes allow them to evolve in new and exciting ways? Are we causing the artistic evolution of animals by providing them with such tools? Or are we simply helping them express an artistic ability that has always been within some of them? And if some animals do indeed have an aesthetic sense, as well as a true artistic ability, does this also prove that those animals have souls?

As if elephants and horses with artistic talent aren’t enough to make you wonder what the heck is going on in the animal kingdom, there has now been a second recorded case of immaculate conception among sharks. The first such case occurred when a hammerhead shark gave birth to a shark pup at a zoo in Omaha Neb. The second, and most recent case, which occurred 16 months ago, involved a black tip shark named Tidbit. Tidbit died while undergoing a yearly checkup. A necropsy revealed she was in late stages of pregnancy. Since there had been no male black tipped sharks in the aquarium with her during the 8 years she had been there, the late term pregnancy came as quite a surprise. DNA testing proved the 10″ shark pup contained no genetic material from a male shark. Scientists theorize that shark pups lacking the chromosomes present in male sperm would have reduced genetic diversity, and be at a disadvantage for surviving in the wild.

My best friend Moonie recently witnessed an incident involving a gray fox that seems to show just how thoroughly at least one fox has adapted to surviving city life. The fox was spotted by her early one morning in downtown Midland, Tx. She watched as the fox stopped at the crosswalk, waited for the light to change, then trotted across the street. At first she thought it was a fluke, and the fox had merely been watching something else, and just happened to cross the street as the light changed. However, when the fox came to the next crosswalk, it once again paused, then crossed the street only after the crosswalk light changed to green.

I’ve seen a couple of stories lately as well where ACORN and some other folks have been accused of registering animals to vote. And who knows, if this evolutionary phase some species of animals seem to be going through continues, maybe some day we will be sharing the voting booths with real donkeys and elephants.

Scientists have given 25 octopuses Rubik’s cubes to determine if they have a favorite tentacle, and to relieve stress. Thanks to this story, I found out all kinds of neat stuff I never knew about octopuses before. For instance, octopuses have over half their nerves in their arms, and even partially think with their arms. Which leads me to wonder if maybe some human males really do think with a certain other appendage. Whoops. Sorry guys, I just couldn’t resist that! Anyway, back to the story about the octopuses and their Rubik’s cubes.

Hopefully, this month long study will determine if octopuses do have a favorite tentacle. It might also lead to ways to reduce stress levels in octopuses who have to live in captivity. Octopuses are apparently very susceptible to stress. Which makes me wonder what will happen to the stress levels of those 25 octopuses if they start trying to solve the Rubik’s cubes puzzles they have been handed? Isn’t that likely to increase their stress levels? I know when I was given a Rubik’s cube way back when they first became popular I nearly drove myself crazy trying to solve that little puzzle. I also remember there were times I wanted to throttle the person who gave it to me. Frankly, if I were the people interacting with those 25 octopuses I would keep a close eye on them, and make sure I didn’t wind up throttled by the favorite tentacle of a frustrated octopus.

The octopuses are also going to be given balls, jam jars, and lego bricks to play with. Visitors to the Sea Life Centre will be asked to participate in the study. They will be asked to note which arms were closest to the object, and which arm was used to pick up the object. I wonder if there is a place on the form the visitors will no doubt be given to note if any of the octopuses they are watching throws an unsolved Rubik’s cube at the viewing window?

Reading that story makes me yearn to go to Dorset and watch the octopuses discover the “joys” of Rubik’s cubes. And it makes me wonder what those octopuses might build if given enough lego bricks?

Click Here to read the entire Daily Mail Online Story.

I’m glad to report that after trapping another mouse in one of the more lethal V Traps, I am no longer being plagued by messy noisy mice. There may still be some up in the attic, but as long they stay up there, and remain quiet, I am willing to live and let live. And for the time being, after dropping another smoke bomb down a hole I found, both the front and backyard appear to be mole free. I hope the yard remains mole free, but if not, I did happen to pick up some more smoke bombs when I went to Ace last week for more mouse traps. As long as the moles stay out in the mesquite patch, I’m taking the same live and let live attitude with them as well. However, moles who insist on trying to move into the yard and make unsightly mounds and holes are going to find themselves ruthlessly smoked out.

When I haven’t been screwing up the best laid plans of mice and moles, I’ve been ruthlessly trying to rid the rosemary and crown of thorns bush of the swarms of tiny little bee like insects that are hanging out in them. I’ve tried every kind of bug spray I can find. And I damn near did myself in when I thoroughly dusted both of the bushes down with a good coating of Sevin Dust, and forgot to wear my protective filter mask. What really irks the hell out of me about that incident is although I was sick as hell for a couple of days after dusting the bushes sans protective filter mask, the damn little bee like insects seem to be totally unaffected by the white coating of Sevin Dust I liberally sprinkled over both bushes.

The only thing more annoying for me right now than the moles and insects plaguing my yard are the blasted spammers who keep leaving their ads in the comment section of my blog. I am just as ruthless about clicking the “Spam” filter on my blog and ridding it of their silly ads as I am with the mice and moles in and around my house. And speaking of BB’s Blog, I finally worked up enough courage to do the recommended upgrade. I downloaded a nifty plug-in that promised to automatically upgrade my blog to the latest version. After uploading it to the proper directory and clicking on the start button I was pleasantly amazed when the automatic upgrade plug-in worked as promised. Kudos to the inventor of that handy plug-in! I am so impressed with how well the upgrade went, I may even make a donation to the site that plug in came from. I feel much better now that the blog is updated and that annoying messages telling me my blog is outdated is gone. It so sucks to be told your are outdated, especially, at my age.

And if you are reading this Week’s Fix from the blog itself, I hope you enjoy the cheerful new Tulip Time theme it is now sporting.

I was awakened the other morning at 5:30 a.m. by a strange knocking noise that sounded as if it was coming from night stand next to my bed. After I reached over and gave the table a gentle shake the strange knocking stopped. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep. When I got up at what is a more reasonable hour for me I noticed that the statue of a panther I have on the top shelf of that night stand was closer to the edge than usual. As I moved the statue back I noticed the bottom of it was not perfectly flat, nor was it lined with felt like the bottom of some figurines are. Since we had recently had the roof replaced, and the whole house had shuddered at times from the impact of the roofing shingles being tossed on it. I assumed the statue had moved when that was going on, and somehow got to vibrating.

That night I slept soundly and was not awakened by any strange noises. However, the next night, or rather early morning, I was once more awakened from my blissful slumber by a strange rattling noise. I was convinced the noise was coming from the table. Larry said we should check outside and see if something outside was causing it. After finding the grill near the bedroom window loose we assumed the wind had been catching it just right, and that was the source of the strange noise. Larry screwed the vent grill down tight. I went to bed that night convinced my slumber would not be interrupted anymore.

Imagine my surprise, and frustration, when once more I was awakened at 5:30 a.m. by a strange rattling noise. This time there was no doubt in my mind it was coming not only from the night stand, but from the top drawer of said night stand. After shaking the table to get it to quiet down I rolled over and went back to sleep. When I got up later that morning I took the drawer out and discovered evidence that clearly pointed to a mouse being the cause of the noise. I set some traps under and on the table that I hoped would would solve my noisy mouse problem. Though I didn’t really think any mouse would be dumb enough to go into it, I baited the one plastic rectangular cube type trap I had hanging around the house with a cinnamon Triscuit cracker that I smeared a dab of peanut butter on. When I went to bed that night I hoped that if I was going to be awakened by the sound of that mouse, it would be the sound of his little neck snapping in one of the more lethal V traps.

At 1:24 a.m. I awoke to the sound of frantic scratching and mild thumping. Seems at least one mouse was dump enough to go into the cube trap. I turned the overhead light on, looked at the little mouse whose eyes were staring at me in total terror, and thought, “Well, now what?” No way could I leave the trapped mouse on the table with the racket it was making. But, I had no intention of going outside in the middle of the night and possibly getting snake bit while trying to get rid of the mouse. In my infinite blonde wisdom I put the cubed mouse out on the porch room, and decided to let Larry deal with it when he got up.

In his infinite male wisdom Larry first decided to put the trap in the middle of the road, then run over it with the 4 Wheeler. I told him I didn’t care what the hell he did with it as long I never saw that mouse, or stupid trap again. After thinking about it, Larry reconsidered his original plan, and opted for simply throwing the cubed mouse across the road. If the mouse escaped fine. If it didn’t, that was fine too. He lobbed the cubed mouse towards the road, and watched as it bounced several times. The little one way swinging trap door fell off on the last bounce. The mouse, badly addled from all the bouncing did not immediately take advantage of the situation. However, after a few minutes it collected its wits, and scurried from the trap. It was at that point an 18 wheeler came rumbling by. That mouse was leading a charmed life because the 18 wheeler missed flattening the mouse by a couple of inches. The mouse was last seen running hell bent for leather towards the mesquite patch on the other side of the road. I seriously doubt that little mouse will ever want to step foot inside a house again after the experience he had in, and out of mine.