re: RIP Mike Leach

quote:

---

Damn. It kind of makes me want to go buy some Candy Corn, to throw away.

---

quote:

---

That video is unbelievable

---

quote:

---

When I was a kid I had a pet raccoon. I really liked raccoons — still do. I know an inordinate amount about raccoons actually. People fuss about raccoons all the time, but I’ve never had a problem with them. At my place in Key West, raccoons will show up sometimes and I’m always happy when they do. I named my pet raccoon after one of my favorite book characters, Bilbo Baggins. We got Bilbo when I was pretty young. I grew up out in the country in Wyoming, and there was a guy near us who had a baby raccoon he wanted to get rid of, so my family took it in. I will say Bilbo did a fabulous job as a house pet. Got along great with the dog, got along great with the cats and he usually got along with the people too. The one thing about Bilbo is that helovedpots and pans. Pots and pans were his favorite thing. Raccoons are drawn to shiny objects. Bilbo could climb really well — raccoons look cumbersome but they can get wherever they want — and he used to go into our kitchen and sneak into the cupboard. He could get the door open because raccoon hands are similar to human hands and their feet are similar to human feet. There’s a lot of dexterity. Really smart animals. So anyway Bilbo would get on the counter and I’d see him staring at those pots and pans, just captivated by their shininess. Then he’d start knocking them around, interested in the way they clanged together.

Every now and then the house would be quiet and suddenly there’d be a crash! And there Bilbo would be in the kitchen, hanging off the cupboard above the sink, just knocking the pans out so he could play with them. Interestingly, he didn’t care for glass at all. Never messed with the cups or the plates. The only way those would break was if they were in the way of a shiny pan. Great pet. He was so smart, even knew his name and would come whenever he was called. But eventually he hit a point when he started to reach adulthood and got more temperamental. He slowly became kind of feisty and would snap at us a little bit. It wasn’t his fault. Bottom line: I just think raccoons, like some humans, reach a point when they’re ready to grow up. One night, Bilbo got particularly feisty, so my dad and I drove him out to woods. Once we found a good spot, we stopped and I put him on the ground and took his collar off. He kind of ambled about, taking in the new surroundings. I preface this next part by saying I do think humans and animals share an unspoken understanding, to some extent. That’s why it’s so easy to bond with pets. So this is how I remember saying goodbye to Bilbo: He wandered 10 yards away or so from the truck, and then he turned and looked at us and kind of had this expression like,It was nice knowing ya.It was this moment where like, both I knew and he knew that we’d had some good times, but this was it. It was onward and upward for both of us.

---