Or, perhaps, Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind hype… though from what I’ve seen of citified wusses, it just might not be. WHat am I talking about? This.
Bat Terrorizes Passengers on Airplane
A bat got loose on an Atlanta-bound flight, forcing horrified passengers to duck for cover…
*feh* Now, I’ve not seen many bats, apart from some swooping around vacuuming up pests in the early evening or bat flghts from or into caves, but a bat loose on a plane “Terroriz[ing] Passengers”?
I can recall sitting in church with my wife and her folks in a southern Minnesota city 30-something years ago when a bat made its appearance, causing a (very) minor distraction from the worship service (folks near it–particularly children–seemed amused or entertained by its appearance). A middle-aged lady a couple of rows in front of us removed her Sunday hat and simply scooped it, trapping it very neatly. She then simply walked to the back of the sanctuary and I heard the doors open and close a couple of times. She came back and sat down.
I assumed she’d cleaned her hat, since she was once again wearing it.
Big. Deal.
Now, if it had been a wolf… “Good puppy!”
*heh*
Rabbit trail: Oh, yeh. Met a wolf last summer–or so I was told. I thought it was just a very big, rangy Huskie or some such, and enjoyed petting and playing with it a bit while I was trying to make contact with the folks who lived on the property. Talked to a neighbor shortly thereafter and he asked me how I’d gotten by the wolf to get to his neighbor’s door. Apparently it has a ferocious reputation in the neighborhood and is the focus of lots of complaints, according to the guy I talked to. Could have been exaggeration, though. Still, I talked to the owner later at his place of employment (a local cop shop), and the wolf part (and difficulty most folks have getting to his front door) part were confirmed by him. He was kinda miffed at my reports of how friendly his “dog” was. *heh*
I read about the bat in the plane, and thought Pelosi had escaped her coffin.
Nice story about the wolf, though 😉
*heh* “Pelosi had escaped from her coffin”.
I haven’t met any wolves myself, but I have frequently considered moving to the Far North and have read about them a great deal, especially David Mech’s books. If well fed and not feeling threatened, a wolf should be no more aggressive or dangerous than any dog, but I definitely wouldn’t want to rough house with one.
Indeed, Bill. The one I interacted with was no more threatening than the typical pit bull or rottie (which is to say, not at all). As far as I was concerned, just a “good puppy”. But then I’ve met very, very few canines I’ve had difficulty with at all, and the three real problem dogs I’ve met were ALL that way because of problem owners. One has to expect them to act like typical examples of their species and breed and be prepared to act accordingly, but, one-on-one, dogs are almost always “Good People”.
*heh* I met a guy who was bitten by a Saint Bernard puppy I had briefly met. “Puppy” in age/maturity; BIG DOG in size. Very “puppy mouthy” though. Guy shoved a clipboard he had in his hands in the dog’s face and got bitten. Naturally. I had met it a couple of weeks previously and pet it and played with it a bit. When I started to leave, it grabbed my hand… for more petting. Now, I could have gotten all upset with that and ended up being bitten, but I simply pet it as we walked to my car. That’s all it wanted: more attention.
Most (not all but most) people who are “attacked” by dogs bring the “attacks” on themselves by being stupid. Stupider than the dogs who “attack” them, that is. Much stupider.
I guess I was just lucky with the wolf. Or maybe it knew, by how I behaved toward it, that I wasn’t intimidated by it and had no need or desire to be aggressive toward it. Maybe that’s why we had such a good couple of minutes’ play time together.