Category: Storytelling

Living by Joe WilcoxJun 8, 20069:07 pm

Not So Fair Hare in Fairbanks

For about two weeks, I’ve been meaning to write about the plight of Jean McDermott and the feral rabbits. Her story—told on her blog, Jean’s Northern Niche—started last November, when someone “let loose their domestic rabbits in my neighborhood“. Oh. Oh. “They have proliferated, to say the least”. Jean, who lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, notes that a good breeding pair of rabbits can produce—get this—”13 MILLION young (the young breed as young as four months) within three years”.

She makes clear that feral rabbits, “eat EVERYTHING…Just do a Google search on ‘rabbit population’ to see what a terribly destructive power rabbits can be. Here in Alaska they are dealing with the sub-zero temperatures just fine, too”.

Critters by Joe WilcoxJun 5, 20068:47 am

Bunny Post Mortem

Bubba’s demise may have been caused by contact with a cat. In my last post, I identified bacteria as one possible cause for the baby bunny’s death.

On Saturday night, hours after adopting Bubba, I sent an e-mail to Second Chance Wildlife Center, which is where we would have taken the bunny for care. Last night, Chris from Second Chance e-mailed advice about Bubba. Apparently, she didn’t know that I had called earlier in the day. With her permission, here is the e-mail, which contains information potentially useful to other people with distressed, wild baby bunnies.

Critters by Joe WilcoxJun 4, 20061:18 pm

Burying Bubba

Bubba’s little life ended this morning. We awoke to find the orphaned bunny cold and listless. My daughter held Bubba to warm it, while I phoned the local animal rehabilitator. She advised to immediately bring Bubba in for care. But the bunny died before we could even leave the house. We later wrapped Bubba in a cloth and buried it in the backyard. May the bunny rest in peace.

Bubba’s demise could have come from a number of different factors or a combination of them. I’d like to list some of them and offer advice for anyone coming across a seemingly abandoned bunny (in our case, we didn’t find Bubba).

Critters by Joe WilcoxJun 3, 20068:24 pm

Bubba

This morning I got a delightful call at 10:03. Penn Camera had received, finally, my 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor lens. I’ve been waiting for this lens since getting the Nikon D200. This evening I carried the lens out on a bunny watch. Some evenings, my wife, daughter and I watch the furballs frolic in the neighborhood across the main street.

We bumped into two ladies (they looked like a couple) trying to find a home for an abandoned bunny. One of the ladies carried the kitten, she called Bubba, cupped in her hand. His story: Yesterday, the ladies’ cat brought home the baby bunny, apparently without injury. The women fed Bubba diluted Half `n Half by way of eye dropper. Last night, after seeing that the animal was OK, the women put the baby out in their yard. But they were uncertain of the nest’s location. Today, their neighbor found the baby on his lawn while mowing.

Society by Joe WilcoxMay 17, 20069:45 pm

Jimmy

When I was 12, after school every day, my best friend and I would go to the local five and dime for Coke at the soda fountain. We’d sit on stools and share the drink, purchased for a nickel, using separate straws. His dad and mom worked at a different school, respectively, as principal and teacher. We would wait until they came for him. Day after day.

The description might make me seem to be quite old, but parts of Maine are still behind the times—in the best ways possible.

Living by Joe WilcoxMay 15, 20067:44 pm

Better, or Worse?

I just can’t resist eavesdropping on conversations in public places. Tonight, while standing in line at the CVS, I heard some scolding to my left. The cashier was giving this old geezer a hard time […]

Living by Joe WilcoxApr 16, 200612:04 pm

Be Better Neighbors

Yesterday, I wore my Alienware T-Shirt, with the company’s logo on the front—an alien, of course. For some reason, I got several questions about it. So I said: “Well, this is my illegal alien. He’s afraid of getting sent back to his home planet, and I’m protesting with him.”

There’s truth to what I said. I’m unfavorable to the hardline US legislators are taking with this immigration bill. I just don’t see turning all these immigrants into criminals, or turning them away. As one of the sixth graders pointed out today in the Sunday school class I teach, most Americans are immigrants. And to the Native Americans here 400 hundred years ago, the off-continent settlers were the illegals and, as it turned out, invaders, too.

Living by Joe WilcoxApr 8, 20064:44 pm

The 9-11 Degrees of Separation

I have been thinking about Zacarias Moussaoui’s trial and an important lesson taught by the tragedies of September 11, 2001. We really all are connected, in more obvious ways than we realize. There’s a concept […]

Living by Joe WilcoxApr 2, 20062:41 pm

Another Measure of Beauty

I find pragmatism to be an attractive quality, assuming that’s the right word. Today at IKEA, I observed this petite blonde with a tape measure clipped to the right back pocket of her jeans. There was something unwomanly about it that I find really appealing.

I feel the same way about women with cell phones clipped to their front jeans pocket; and to think so many women wear earrings! I’ve never had much taste for girlie girls that wear more makeup than frosting on cake. But this…

People by Joe WilcoxMar 28, 20065:12 pm

Super Lawyer

Geek Entertainment TV has an interview with Lawrence Lessig: Mr. Creative Commons and champion of reasonable copyrights. I’m a big fan of both. Lawrence’s work supports the spirit of the the early Web.

The Arts by Joe WilcoxMar 27, 20066:00 pm

Stoning ‘Philosopher’s Stone’

While traveling this month, I started reading J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, with the shameful, Americanized title. The book is properly known in the UK as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Given the Potter series’ popularity (six books and four movies), I had high expectations of the bestseller, but lowered them upon reading.

Coming from Northern Maine, where remain cultural ties to Canada and Britain, I quickly picked up on the mishmash of very British references. I’d say that Rowlings includes just about every magical or ghoulish creature known on the British Isles. The book borrows heavily from literary consciousness. The lacking originality, of plopping together concepts and creatures familiar to many generations of Britons, is astounding—unless her originality is humor. I take the book to be farcical, humorous in its plopping together so many creatures steeped in British cultural heritage.

Living by Joe WilcoxFeb 21, 20066:14 pm

Be Responsible for Your Kids Online

Over the last couple days, I’ve seen an awfully good AP story, by reporter Matt Apuzzo, stir quite a flurry of fallout about kids online safety at blogsites. Matt focuses on MySpace.com, but the problems of too much information disclosure are persistent.

In December posts What Kids Reveal Online and Minimizing Kids’ Online Risks, I explored the dangers of teen blogging and what kids foolishly reveal.