Alaska Region U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assists the keeper in accepting the reality of a postponed sleigh ride—not enough snow–that he and Phyllis were scheduled to enjoy, by comparing it to the experience of Alaskan Bridgett Watkins who was attacked by a moose …
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Category:Nature
Kickass Watches Crows Chase
Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper takes bird incidents where he can get them from the 5th floor bird-isolated location where he and Phyllis reside, and therefore it was with some excitement that he watched an obviously pissed-off crow chase another crow across the parking …
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Kickass and Those of the Forest
Shadowmeld Photography, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper has finally finished his before-sleep book—”Those of the Forest” by Wallace Grange, which is an accounting of the symbiotic existence of all things, complete with all the necessary predatory/parasitic violence and transformative extinctions. There are no people …
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Kickass and Leopold’s Birthday
Pacific Southwest Region 5, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that while the keeper mentioned recent January birthdays, he missed Aldo Leopold’s on Jan.11 which marked 135 years since Leopold’s birth in 1887. (Leopold died in 1948 of a heart attack while fighting a wildfire on neighbor’s property.) …
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Kickass and Skunk Style
Photo by Bryan Padron on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper assesses the degree of hibernation necessary to survive a Wisconsin winter, and compares the actions—inactions, actually—of himself and Phyllis to that of the “dumb” animals such as skunks that are dozing through the numbing cold and snow in cozy dens. Skunks …
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Kickass and the Shortest Day of the Year
Winter Solstice Sunrise 2010 by Sian Lindsey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, listened as the keeper interviewed the shortest day of the year (SDOY): Keeper: “So how did you end up as the shortest day of the year?” SDOY: “Daylight started to leak out through a big hole in …
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Oh, Christmas Tree
Artwork by Michael Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter (Originally posted in December, 2019) Each year, in the family holiday tradition, my wife and I venture out to buy our Christmas tree. We’re lucky enough to live across the street from a big tree lot so we don’t have very far to go—we can walk right …
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Kickass and Leghold Traps
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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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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