Oh Those City Mice!

They're always good for a laugh, aren't they? Quoting at length from The Washington Post because it's just too rich.

Is a rabid fox ‘a really good sign’ for the city?
By Annys Shin and Theresa Vargas,February 14, 2013
 
A rabid fox bit a young mother on the leg this week as she crossed a road in Northwest Washington’s Rock Creek Park.

Tuesday’s attack was bad news for the fox, which was later captured by D.C. animal control officers and put down, and for the victim, who has to get a series of rabies shots.

But it was good news to city officials, who saw it as confirmation that the District’s environment is improving, making it more inviting to wildlife, even an occasional sick one.

“It’s actually a really good sign,” maintained Najma Roberts, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Health, which oversees animal control. “When you look at areas that are filled with pollution — not a lot of trees and grass, and garbage everywhere — there is less wildlife.”

[snip]

The woman who was bitten described it this way on an online forum for denizens of Mount Pleasant: “I was crossing by the bridge (Tilden?) at the end of the little trail down the hill behind Ingleside when a little fox attacked my ankle and wouldn’t let go. I had the baby in the carrier in front and couldnt see very much, but I eventually managed to get him off of me just as Animal Control happened by. I am not sure if they caught him. He looked really sick and I’m still not sure why he came at me or from where but keep a look out.”

[snip]

The attack has left some residents wary of the creatures, which are about the size of large cats. Some Crestwood residents suspect foxes are to blame for unexplained cat injuries and fatalities, and they’re keeping their felines indoors at night.

Christina Ryan, who has worked in the neighborhood for 20 years, wondered if foxes were responsible for the disappearance of rabbits, which she used to see regularly. Others welcomed foxes because they believe they keep deer with Lyme-disease-carrying ticks at bay.

 I have just three short comments.

1. 

That's one BIG large cat!

2. 

Boy with a Gun. Oh my!

 3.

The first Civil War was, on the whole, a gentlemanly affair; the second one wasn’t. Here in northern New England we were lucky. Because we didn’t have many ethnic divisions or cults or Deep Greeners, we didn’t have militias shelling the cities and ravaging the suburbs. Elsewhere, it was what Lebanon and Yugoslavia and the former Soviet empire saw in the late 20th century.

[snip]

The Deep Greeners took over Oregon, and North Americans got their first taste of totalitarianism. If you weren’t one of them, you didn’t get a Breathing License and they tied a plastic bag over your head. That lasted three years until the rest of the state recaptured Portland with Japanese help (they needed the timber). Both Portland and Washington are doing okay now; recently they got the right of sending non-voting delegates to the Diet in Tokyo.

After the usual series of coups, northern California ended up as the Azanian Republic. It made Oregon seem rational by comparison. The Azanian government in Berkeley was, in its final incarnation, run by a coalition of radical feminists, Maoist guerrillas, and militant vegetarians. The only capital crime was eating meat. The end came after Azania was overrun by animals who, by law, could be neither killed nor neutered.

From William Lind's short essay, "Militant Musings: From Nightmare 1995 to My Utopian 2050" first published in The Washington Post on Sunday, April 30, 1995. [My emphasis]

This is a wonderful, over the top little essay about the future breakup of the United States. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to find online. This is the only site I could find. Find some time to read the whole thing. Be prepared to laugh out loud... and muse.