What's better today, my friend? I am happy that Dually, the rescued quaterhorse, is back where he belongs. He knocked a fence down enough to get off the property. I brought him water and food as soon as I called Tasha. She put a dog leash around him and led him back home. Odessa, the white rescued Arabian was screaming for him. Dually was one of several horses rescued from a cop who was no longer feeding his horses. Why, I don't know. Tasha got him from south Florida when the woman who was rescuing horses lost her insurance job and could no longer afford to take care of them. Tasha got Odessa from the same woman several years ago.
She was being starved by her Cuban owner in south Florida. From what I have been able to learn, Cubans have a bush league where they race horses informally, and it is their custom not to feed horses who don't do well or they don't like. Sounds sub-human, doesn't it? We Americans have no idea how enlightened we are.
I was also happy to be able to get the clay pigeon on my third shot with my slingshot. I am shooting from the easiest position - directly in the path of the clay bird. Sometimes, I have to duck or move. When I hit the bird, I then move one giant step (this is a game) away from where I shot and shoot once there. If I hit the bird, I move another giant step away. If I miss, I have to make a giant step back to the original position directly in the path of the clay bird. In this manner, I am building upon success. But success is extremely slow for I am still on the original spot. Whenever I move away a step, I miss the bird and have to go back to the self-defense shots. Smashing a clay pigeon is a totally satisfying experience.
Audrey and I just made a run into High Springs for horse feed and hay. A David Anderson told me, "I saw a small, young, black panther at Camp O'Leno - that's what O'Leno State Park was called back then. He was crossing a trail just at dusk. This was when I was in teenager so it would be back in fifties." Justin Smith said, "I saw a mountain lion on Bible Camp Road (a dirt road on the north side of O'Leno State Park), and I know it was a mountain lion and not a Florida panther because it had a tuft at the end of his tail. I've seen mountain lions in California. I drive a S-10 which is real noisy. The lion jumped the fence and then stood on the other side looking at me, probably because of the noise of my truck. You know how a deer will run up to a fence, hesitate, and then bound over it. Not that lion. He never hesitated and just sailed over that fence."
While I was reading a book about panthers, I came upon this little gem: "Defeat is certain if a champion will not take to the field." Thus wrote Ken Alavarez in Twilight Of The Panther.
If things go as planned, tomorrow I will be out in the field looking for Bigfoot and black panthers. I saw no mention of Tom Bascardi's promised news conference in Palo Alto about the dead Bigfoot's DNA and about more pictures of the creature on Fox News this morning. I will check the internet when I can.
A couple of weeks ago, I tried to read Worth The Fighting For by John McCain with Mark Salter. I was disappointed with the book for it seemed to be almost all about thanking people for their good ideas and good work. It had no ideology, no philosophy that I saw. I did see why John McCain supported General Petraeus' surge though. McCain wrote, "You can't hold ground from the air, and holding ground is what constitutes victory in warfare (page 288)" If we had only followed that strategy in Vietnam and much sooner in Iraq. If he had written more principles like that, I would have read the book instead of reading through it.
May we do our best to walk The Path Of Love until we meet again, my friend. Two-Guns at peternickerson12@yahoo.com.