Accipiter (R. Altenkamp, Berlin), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in approving of the Madison city council’s ban on declawing cats; and also in telling the council that so long as it does not ban the use of leghold traps—as has been done in many parts of the civilized …
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Category:Nature
Kickass and the Snowy Owl
Alan D. Wilson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper has spent much of his long life trying to make amends for his early farm-boy years when his thoughtless marauding with his .22 rifle made no bird or animal safe. Etched deeply into the keeper’s guilt …
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Kickass and Mackenzie Pheasants
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, napped at home as the keeper and Phyllis spent the waning hours of the 2021 deer hunting season hiking a trail at the MacKenzie Outdoor Education Center near Poynette where a sign displays the famous Aldo Leopold quote about some people needing wild things. …
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Kickass and Bird Dinosaurs
NobuTamura email:nobu.tamura@yahoo.com www.palaeocritti.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the new digs for Phyllis and the keeper–being on the 5th floor of a recently completed structure that is isolated from most natural plant growth, is not exactly bird friendly; and this has moved the keeper to court the …
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Kickass and Silent Spring
NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper’s solution to being totally incapable of understanding most of what occurs on planet Earth was a misguided attempt to …
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Kickass Suggests the Zoo
Photo by Chris Briggs on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, suggesting to Phyllis’s son Todd and granddaughter Taylor on how they might spend Tuesday in Madison, said it was a toss-up between the Vilas Park Zoo and the Capitol where there will be a public hearing on establishing a hunting season …
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Kickass Talks to Horses
Photo by Harry Peterson By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s report of a last-day trout fishing excursion with Harry Peterson that included such extensive immersion in the rural Driftless landscape that communicating with the animals, both wild and domestic, came as naturally as it ever can for a species that …
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Kickass Makes a Move
Martyn Gorman / Newburgh: Return of the wild geese By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in noting the constant creature movement across the globe, perhaps topped by the radio-tracked female pecchial hawk that spent 42 days flying 10,000 kilometers from South Africa to Finland, which helps put the upcoming move by the keeper …
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Kickass and Pack Position
Photo from mila-del-monte via Pixabay By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, shared with the keeper and Phyllis yet one more example of what it means to be older members of a “together” pack when son Mike and granddaughter Sarah delivered grilled cheese sandwiches and chili, and stayed to help with furniture moving and official …
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Backyard Web Tour
All Photos by Geoff Carter
Kickass and Borealis Truth
Photo by Vincent Guth on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports on the keeper’s discovery that next Monday’s rare display of the aurora borealis, which will be visible as far south as Wisconsin and New York, will include colorful indicators of the truth, heretofore denied to vast numbers of the populace who believe that if …
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Kickass and Fall Writing
Corey Coyle, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that during the keeper’s long journalistic efforts to stay out of the city room and thus avoid editors and honest labor, he came up with a number of writing schemes built around seasons—“Spring up the Mississippi,” “Around Lake Michigan in …
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