Oregon L.O.W.F.I

Archive for February, 2011

From Jason Offut at From the Shadows: Time Slip in Oregon, about one couple’s experience at the beautiful Edgefield resort in Troutdale, Oregon. This is one of several hotels, pubs, and resorts operated by the McMennimen brothers, who also put on the McMinnville UFO Fest every May.

I’ve been attending the UFO Fest for every year for the past five years; and we spent a wonderful weekend at Edgefield’s some time ago. At the time, we didn’t know that the place has a reputation for being haunted, but we surely felt haunty vibes while there, particularly on the floor where the dorms were. Very strong.

Oregon has a bill in the chute that will end protection to parents who use faith healing as their only method of treating their ill children.

An odd day so far…

Jim hits his head, starts to bleed. Not good, because he’s on medication that affects bleeding and bruising — the simplest cut bleeds profusely and takes a long time to heal. Scary but we think it’ll be okay. Keeping a watch on it of course.

A few minutes after that, we’re sitting in the living room, reading, when we hear strange sounds from the side of the house. Loud, scrambling scratching sounds. It sounded close to the sound a cat makes when it scratches its claws on wood. I had a fleeting thought it was one of our cats outside scratching on the side of the house, which has never happened, and, that would be one huge cat to make such a loud noise.

Then we hear something falling down the chimney and into our fireplace. Yep, a squirrel! Fortunately for us we have a wood stove insert, and the squirrel can’t get out into the house. But the poor thing is stuck inside, terrified of course, and we’re sitting here listening to its frantic scrambling. We wouldn’t try to do anything ourselves; Jim can’t afford to get bit or scratched, we have four cats, and the last thing I want in this crazy house of ours is a loose squirrel running around.

I’ve called Willamette Wildlife Rehabilitation and left messages. Our neighbor tells us they respond no matter what the hour or day of the week so we’re hoping they call us back soon.

This is not the first time this has happened; a squirrel fell down our chimney a few years ago. Jim climbed up on the roof and put a cap on the chimney at the time. We’ve had a few storms and snow so no doubt things got out of alignment up there.

Superbowl Sunday. Not that I care about that, I don’t, not one bit, but Jim does, (as I realize half of America) and all he wanted to do was relax and watch the game. Poor sweetie.

image: courtesy of Public Domain Image.

The wolf is my animal totem.

Local event at the Lane county fairgrounds: Steve Martin’s Wild World of Wolves. I have strong feelings about wild animals in captivity and used for “entertainment” purposes. I don’t know anything about this outfit specifically; I assume the wolves are loved and treated well, but that is not the issue for me. My personal opinions aside, I find the wolf synchronicities lately to be interesting. (The Steve Martins Wild World of Wolves is one feature of Martin’s Working Wildlife of Frazier Park, California, where wild animals of many varieties are trained to work in film, TV, etc.)
An acquaintance on one of my social networking sites posted about a wolf hybrid that attacked his chickens the other night. The following item appeared in today’s Register Guard on-line, even though the article is from December: Biologist’s take: Wolves not as big, bad as thought
I found this juxtaposition an alarming one: a photo of a five year old boy with rifle “prepare [ing] to fire away at the quarry on a video screen at the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s electronic shooting gallery” and below, a photo of one of the three ‘wild wolves’ at the Boat and Sportsmen’s Show at the Lane County Fairgrounds. (Register Guard, Saturday February 4, 2011.)

photo Paul Carter, Register Guard, City section,2/4/11