I suspect Ed Norton in the stables without changing out of his sewer uniform. the man loves his polloponies!
I don’t see much of a pitting here. For now I’ll move this from The Pit to Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share.
Gfactor
Pit Moderator
Maybe Hale-Bopp is coming back around.
Heaven’s Gait?
Seems like a case of mass horseteria to me.
Sorry! Couldn’t help myself!
On the bright side, if you’re in the mafia, you can now get horse heads in bulk.
He appointed a notorious inside man for the job, who fed them poisoned heckuva job brownies.
If we’re gonna talk about horse feed, let’s not forget beet pulp. Yes, it’s one of my favorite stories, and if you’ve been around a while, you might have seen me link to it before. I link again, because of the newbies who need to be aware that if you have a house squirrel, you should never, ever leave it alone* in the house while you’re rehydrating dried beet pulp.
*Except for the cats, dogs, birds, and toads. And crickets.
Oh, God, that story is one of my all-time Internet favorites! Dunno how many times I’ve read it but it makes me howl every time.
He’s more of a shooter. If the horses were riddled with bullets or shotgun pellets, he’s the guy I’d be looking for.
About 10ish years ago several pulling horses were killed and several mares aborted when a lazy worker at the local feed mill decided not to clean up properly between batches of feed. (Cottage Grove, BTW Boyo Jim). Rumensin is a popular additive in cattle chow but it will kill a horse even in small doses.
That’s one of the funniest things I’ve read in quite a while! (Although the Janie cat disapproves of my cackling…) I wonder if ferrets would do similar? :eek:
Heck, it’s like listening to the news. I mean, in that first you get a truly horrible story and then they finish up with a make-you-smile-and-chortle story, leaving on a happy note. But I’ve never heard the news manage anything as good as the Squirrel Tale. 
Yes, I’m glad Lynn reposted it, 'cos it was new to me.
It would almost be a good practical joke to play on someone … nah.
When I read the article, Monensin (Rumensin is the trade name) was the first thing that came to mind. It is deadly poison to horses. And it causes death of the heart muscle and thus the signs of heart failure. Botulism would be possible too, but in that case the horses would just get weak and fall over without the heart failure symtpoms. Hopefully the post mortem will sort it out.
Saw this first thing this AM and have been sick to my stomach and angry all day.
So the 100 horses who died at EquiTransfer (in the link above) died in October…have they issued the results of the toxicology report on them yet?
Oh, Lynn, Thank you so much! I’ve been feeling a bit down lately (that’s why I’m awake, posting, at 4 am) and that story made me laugh until I cried…which I so needed to do! I think I can go back to sleep now!
I think that one of my favorite bits is the fact that the squirrel is Traumatized by the Christmas tree, and tries to hide under the nearest border collie. I repost the story every now and then because there’s always people who haven’t read it yet…and people who need to re-read it, too.
As far as I know, ferrets wouldn’t do anything similar, because they are not food hoarders, are they? Hamsters would, as they are notorious for hoarding.
In the beginning of the story, the writer mentions that horses view new feeds with suspicion. Perhaps they are right to do so.
I read that to my husband - who occasionally deals with bitchy squirrels on his postal route - and he laughed and said he’d heard that if you hand-raise a squirrel, you either get a critter that wants to go back to the wild ASAP, thank you, or something rather like what William turned out to be.
And no, ferrets aren’t food hoarders to that extent. For pre-vet appointment fasting periods, I have had to pull them out of their cages and put them in little playpens, previously cleared of food, as one of my ferrets screwed up her fast by stashing a few bits here and there. (Food showed up clearly on the X-ray, leading me to Not Be Pleased.) Nothing on that level of hoarding by any means, which makes sense as they’re carnivorous and their wild ancestors thousands of years ago didn’t have stashable kibble to feed on.
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/dogsinelk.html
A little more… gory than the Squirrel story… but oh, god. Dogs. In Elk.
Aww, poor ponies.
I want a squirrel!!!