Wednesday, November 15, 2017

and two shots rang out in the distance

I was walking my yellow labrador and my daughter's corgi in the woods within a mile of where I live and heard these two shots ring out. It sounded a lot like a .38 or a .45 pistol or thereabouts even though at a distance a .22 pistol or rifle can sound like that too.

So, since the shots rang out (it sounded like) in the direction of my home I called my wife on my cell phone to see if she was okay and she was.

This kind of thing is disturbing lately if you live anywhere in the U.S. with Churches and schools being shot up now with such regularity.

I called the local authorities to report these two shots. Later my housekeeper told me they had shut down all the schools nearby too including the public school of one of her children, where her  young daughter was at. So, I was also disturbed to hear that too.

I have been near gunshots and heard the sound of bees during deer hunting season when someone likely shot wildly at a deer at a distance. The only problem with shooting most rifle bullets through a forest is that if they don't hit a tree or a deer they could potentially kill someone. So, as I heard above my head years ago now this buzzing of bees over my head I realized soon it was a gun report of likely something larger than a 30 30 on up to a 30 odd 6 in caliber. So, if you hear bullets they don't sound like anything but bees at first if the bullet originates over 1 block away.

Most rifle bullets are accurate to at least 1 mile before the bullets start dropping any distance. So, be careful where you target practice because someone might be in another part of the forest if you shoot wildly anywhere on earth through a forest. And if you shoot straight up into the sky guess what happens (eventually that bullet may come down and hit your or your friends or relatives and the gravity after going up 1 mile is enough to kill anyone through the top of their heads from the gravity velocity of that bullet returning to earth.

The strangest thing to me about all this is shots aren't always reported in the news because they are so common. Even where I live it is not uncommon for someone to shoot a raccoon rummaging through trash cans and the like. Deer are not shot where I  live because they are vegetarians and only defend themselves when cornered when they cannot escape. But, raccoons regularly kill small pets if people forget and leave their small dogs out after dark because raccoons are nocturnal.

Also, a family of raccoons together (monkeys in other countries do this too) will attack a pet and the owner too if a woman especially is out walking her dogs and encounters a family of raccoons that are hungry.

The larger owner is usually not attacked unless she defends her pet from the family of raccoons then often the owner of the pet winds up in the hospital. But, remember this only happens at night because raccoons sleep during the days usually in culverts and other hiding places.

Since raccoons often carry rabies or some sort of plague you don't want to have hand to hand combat with a raccoon ever. I have lost one dog to a raccoon in the early 1990s who  was defending our trash cans when a baby sitter forgot to bring her inside after dark. I think both likely eventually died because he mouth was full of blood from attacking the raccoon. She died of kidney failure one month later.

If you come to the suburbs anywhere in California just realize in suburbs there are ALWAYS raccoons in culverts there that come out at night. So, just expect it. Being forewarned is being forearmed. They have extremely sharp claws and teeth are needle sharp too and they are very quick once they start fighting like lightning. Never both a mother raccoon with babies either that could be fatal like bothering a deer with one or two babies. Deers hooves are lethal and very sharp like a knife and if they rise up on their rear legs back away because otherwise you could be dead soon. The most dangerous deer are mothers with baby deer. However, when bucks have  antlers many a dog (I have seen one who has been thrown with deer antlers and the dog still could run sideways but might not have been long for this world with all the skin torn off his ribs and hanging there loose.

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