Also refers to a highly placed British government official who was careless with important documents.
Back when we had (well-fed) cats, we would often find an “offering” of a dead squirrel, mouse, bat or shrew on our doorstep. Typically it was headless. We could only assume that the head was the tastiest part.
Let’s see if I’m awake enough to keep this straight. We have some older neighbors that we run errands for. I think they’re in their eighties. At the time this happened, she had been moved to a “therapy place” in the bay area (about 85 miles away) and he was keeping track of his oxygen bottles and looking after her dog.
The dog is friendly enough, once you’re past their doorway. (She sounds the alert when you come up to the door.) She’s a bit long-haired and a bit scruffy. She mostly looks like an extremely used mop. She mostly stays indoors, and even if she goes out the front door, she usually comes back in. One day, though, she scooted out to have an adventure.
The next day, the neighbor got a phone call from another neighbor saying she’d been hit by a car and was in the driveway of a car wash that was roughly three blocks this way and four blocks that from their house. He called and asked for help.
I was the only one home, so I loaded up the van with the flat-nosed shovel and a box and some yard bags. There may have been yard gloves. The neighbor came with me to help if needed and to oversee. I have never seen a newly hit animal that flat. There was no way to identify her, but the hair was the right color and length, and it was the right size. It took three scoops to inter her into the plastic-lined box. I assumed that there had been more than one vehicular contact.
The car wash guys were grateful that we were removing her. There were only two of them and it was a busy day. And they didn’t have the equipment to deal with it.
Partly for sentimental reasons, we took her to Animal Control. We told them that she had been chipped and who should show up on the chip and they said they’d take care of it.
Later in the day, the neighbor called to say that Animal Control had found the chip and that it wasn’t his wife’s dog. Another day later, another neighbor saw her. She was roughly three blocks this way and four blocks that from their house, but in a different direction. That neighbor brought her home.
So it wasn’t my neighbor’s dog, but there was a chip so the owners could be notified. I don’t begrudge the removal. And my neighbor didn’t have to tell his wife, by phone, that her dog was dead. So that was good.
It’s been about a year, and the dog is still doing well. She’s a little older and maybe a little scruffier. She still mostly stays inside. The neighbor’s wife is still at a therapy place in the bay area, which is sad, but probably for the best. She had been having a series of calamities and she’s probably safer there.
We have fox & crows & turkey vultures so probably not all that long.
Just last night I was driving home & saw three turkey vultures having a fancy Sat night dinner party, some fairly fresh venison & I think I even saw an nice bottle of cab paired with their entree. 