61. At Least One Kitten Alive

This morning I happened to glance out a back window and saw a red-tailed hawk cruising by. The sun caught the red tail, and it was a beautiful sight. Later, I checked on the kitten site and first found all the food from yesterday eaten, and then I saw a little black kitten toddling off into the brush. I am calling to them each day in hopes that they will learn to recognize my voice and know that I am bringing food. Again, I peed to leave a man-scent trail that I hope will scare kitten-eating predators off. There were two half-grown raccoons dead from being hit by vehicles last night on a bridge near one of my panther food stations. The youngsters may have been at the food station and then wandered onto the bridge and had nowhere to go when vehicles approached. I will back my food station farther away from the bridge.
Last night, I saw something that made me want to spit at the television screen. I was watching one of the Drury brothers and another bowhunter, it could have been his brother, hunting out of a ground blind. It was raining, but the hunters remarked that as soon as the rain started they were sure they would see deer. Sure enough, when the rain started a doe and her fawn came into the field. One hunter shot and killed the mother deer. Then a doe and two fawns came out into the field, and the other hunter shot and killed the mother. These fawns are known as "yearlings," but all that means is that they were born that year. They are not even a year old. I was angry that three fawns were being left to fend for themselves. I don't see how they are going to cope successfully with predators like coyotes, dogs, bobcats, and panthers. The two hunters were congratulating themselves on knowing that deer would come out into the field after the rain. Of course, mother deer would bring their fawns out. The fawns were wet and hungry; they had to eat. I did not expect hunters to shoot the fawns' mothers.
After I calmed down, I wondered if I were wrong: Would fawns make it through the winter without Mother? I wondered if there were studies, but then also wondered if you could believe the studies. Employees are just dancing bears; they shuffle around to whatever tune their bosses play. It is a very rare employee who will tell something else than what his boss wants him to say. At hand, I know of only one - a Federal game biologist in south Florida who said that development is continuing in south Florida despite the panther being an endangered species, and the Florida panthers there are being jeopardized by that development. This biologist was also in the process of being fired, and you can be sure that at least some of the development interests were behind it. There need to be Paul Revere rewards for people who tell the truth as employees and suffer demotion or termination because of telling the truth. The rewards should be very high as they will most probably find it very difficult to find employment after that. Who wants to hire a Paul Revere? That is why there is the adage, "Virtue is its own reward."
Two-Guns at peternickerson12@yahoo.com