Posted by Vita on August 31, 2000 at 10:48:41:
In Reply to: Re: Of red and gray pootchie-boo squirrels posted by Many Flags on August 31, 2000 at 09:46:10:
: Oh, My....here we go!!
: I do not want to get into a discussion on meat or no meat, hunt or no hunt, etc, etc. Yes, I hunt squirrels, flintlock with shot, usually late season after Christmas and I go all 18th century clothing and accoutrements. Yes, I eat them, and at one time relied on a few meals of the critters to get my family through the winter (three growing children and my dear wife). They are grays which are larger than reds, reds having little meat on them but also much sassier. If you have reddish squirrels which are larger than grays, then they are fox squirrels which live in western Penn's Woods, not here where I live near Fort Carlisle and Harris Ferry and I roam north to the Fort Augusta area (MacWm. Chronicles!). I don't hunt the gray critters like I once did cause I have lost my taste for them, and I do not hunt an animal unless I use the animal. I do enjoy flintlocking after the critters, along with my .54 Berks Co. rifle and my Brown Bess, I have a .62 smoothbore (Centermark) which I use for squirrel. No different than our friends Hawkeye, Uncas, or Chinkachgook. 'Nuff said.
: Pax Aye! Slante' mhath!
: Many Flags
Dear Many Flags,
As I said in my post, I do eat salmon and steak... so I am just as cannibalistic as the rest of human kind.
OK, I don't eat the stuff every day, once a month is more like it... but hey... am part of the food chain, aren't I?
When you did the hunting to feed your family, it was a noble thing. Also, in their days, Hawkeye and Company did the same thing, and I do prefer to think that they did it like you, out of necessity rather than pleasure.
Oh, let me tell you about the racoon.... he (or she?) comes every night to the front porch, where I leave my kitty's leftovers for him/her to clean up. Normally, I sit by my living room and watch the critter pay his/her customary visit. I leave the food out on a table on the porch, and table leans against the window sill. Last night, I was lying down on the couch reading (the couch sides with the window lengthwise) and all of a sudden something made me look up, and here was the Racoon!!! Hopped upon the table, front paws leaning on the window sill, little face with the bandit's mask pressed against the glass, beady eyes searching the room until he looked down and saw me there....
A couple of years ago, another racoon, this one a lady because she brought her pups (and I christened her Cleopatra) got so domesticated that she would come out during the day, and often snooze right under my window.
Later, when my cousin visited me with his family, we had to shoot one of them babies... well, of course it was no longer a baby, a big male of a racoon, and when our little boy, then 3 years old, was running around the property with our kitty running with him faithfully, and here are this dog-like loyal and self-domesticated racoons frolicking with them... in broad daylight at that, and then we hear of racoons infested with rabies in nearby woods... well, my cousin is a crackshot, so he had to lift the rifle and with all of us assembled and bawling like babies, had to aim upon the head of this most friendly creature and pull the trigger. See, there was no time for anything else, we feared for our little boy's life. We had the rest of them captured and taken away. Cleopatra, however, disappeared. Sometimes I wonder if this latest one is not related to her... Well, the little son of my cousin is no longer here, and I do not allow my Tiger out at night anymore, so let this racoon enjoy the nocturnal visits.
:-)