Assorted Critters

A wild boar made of parts and pieces and guarding the door to a restaurant in Broderick.

The older version, from around AD 400-800 CE. National Museum of Scotland. You can get coasters with this design on them.

Not all critters are so benign:

Apparently the squirrels at Loch Lomond don’t like BBQ. Or maybe they do . . .

The Oban Pier-cat cleaning up after the fishmongers. The water had been ice around the fresh fish. Pier-cat also mooched from folks at the pubs on the pier.

The Queen’s Garden inside Sterling Castle.

The Picts seem to have venerated, and possibly sacrificed, bulls. National Museum of Scotland.

Badger, badger, badger . . . A sporran at the regimental museum in Sterling Castle.

Pinch of snuff, sir? The entire head is the snuff box. Regimental museum, Sterling Castle.

Advertisement

She, Who Will Be Pampered

I needed to make the bed. As you can tell, this was not on someone else’s agenda. Now, to be honest, since it was -11 F out with a wind chill of “don’t ask,” and horizontal snow, Athena T. Cat had some justification for staying put on the warm faux-fur throw on my bed. In fact, she was probably smarter than the two-foots who was up and about.

Not What the Advertiser Intended

It’s the second time I’ve heard the radio ad. This time I listened, because I thought the two “characters” were talking about a child. The woman said “[Man’s name], I’m worried about Buddy. He’s been gone for hours.” Is it a public service announcement about missing kids, drug abuse, an ad for a car-tracker so the parents can find the teen?

No. It’s about a GPS tag and app so you can find out where your dog is while he’s out roaming!

Dogs on the Roof

No, it’s not a variant on the Australian “kangaroos in the top paddock,” sometimes phrased as “snakes in the upper paddock,” both of which mean the same thing as “an enchilada short of a combo plate.” No, it is an observation related to the ongoing craziness of 2020.

So there I was, walking along in the pre-dawn darkness, minding my own business and keeping an eye out for traffic. As usually happens, at various points along my stroll I heard dogs barking, either at me or at whatever caught their attentions.