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That would be nice, I hope so. She could bring her babies to visit. She is more of a reddish squirrel, the newer ones are spotted, greyish, with shorter thinner rat tails, and look all beat up, kind of scrappy-types.
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Squirrels chasing each other is all about amore💕 ... could Ratatouille be nesting?
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My squirrel is missing.....chased away by two roughian squirrels that took over. They even chase each other away!
That is it! I cleaned the porches off, took all the food away. No one gets anythng unless Ratatouille comes back and takes a peanut out of my hand.

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Lu- People do eat pigeons, not anyone here though. My Dad would eat squab. Rich people do too. EEEW!!! The pigeons don't all have names, because they are safe, from being eaten. That is good, because after a bit, I start recycling names. :) Funny story, when we moved my parents here, we had their car, my suv, and penske truck. Well We boxed up the pigeons and put them in back of my vehichle. Well after a little of the travel, some of the birds started getting out of the box. So then I had pigeons everywhere in the car and I had to make sure they didn't get out, it was horrible, I cant even imagine what people passing by thought. Look at that crazy bird lady. :) but we made it and didnt lose one. Although I had a lot of cleaning to do.

Dorianne- They are homing pigeons. So you train them by dropping them off short distances from the house. And then each week going farther and farther. They naturally return to home. When I was growing up my parents were California racing champs. These birds are all that blood line. My Dad took very good care of his birds, i try to continue.
So when they race, they have a little (I don't know what its called) thing attached to their leg. And you have these clocks, that you take that thing and put it in a capsule and in the clock and it lock in their time. They take into consideration everyones location and calculate for miles and then whoever has the best time wins. It is interesting. When I was little we use to take some pigeons to events and release them, people thought that was neat, because they go up in the air and circle for a bit, getting their bearings and then head for home. When my Dad passed I took some of his pigeons and released them, as a part of his memorial.
The biggest race they won was over 500 miles.
Well, sorry to bore, hope I explained well.
It is neat.
I am glad you have allowed the pigeons to stay. I bet Bruce would like to get up close and personal, poor guy. But I imagine keeps him entertained.
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What is a derp?
Are you sure that isn't a typo?  
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lu - For sure, and their crazy claws make much more sense to me when I see them depicted with feathers! Plus the line from dinosaurs to modern birds sure seems much clearer. Look at the Velociraptor and then look at THIS fellow's amazing claws!

boredpanda.com/massive-bird-harpy-eagle/
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Dorianne...Thanks a lot for all the dinosaur information.I learn something new everyday.
Aren't they're claw feet something else?!!!
And smeshque....sorry you have to coop up your pigeons.You are a good MaMa to protect them so well.What are their names?....Surely,people don't eat pigeons~~
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Lol, naming the animals is a good strategy, smeshque!

I have never heard of racing pigeons before! How do you race them? Is it like homing pigeons, where they know to go to a certain place or to come home?

There are pigeons nesting on mom's balcony, under one of the chairs. I let them stay even though they poop everywhere, because they entertain the cats (who don't go out there - 6th floor and all) and their cooing is soothing.  I think they were nesting there last year, too - I found an egg with a hole pecked in it! Bruce watches their every move like it's the best darned Spielberg movie ever made.
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Yeah Dorianne, I am not one to kill things either.
I declared a rule here, that any animal that comes on the farm, if I name it, they don't get to eat it. So I hurry and try and name everything. So far it has worked. :)
We have a hawk that has gotten some of our pigeons. i hate to lock them up as they love to fly, because they are racing pigeons, but until winter is truly over that hawk just comes around like its a buffet. So I have been locking them up the last few days, they are not happy about it, but its for their own good.
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smeshque - I know darned well if I had to kill ANY of my own food I would be a vegetarian, lol.

lu - They sure did, according to the evidence! Scientists have found something like 30 different types of fossilized feathers from non-avian dinosaurs so far, and think that maybe ALL dinosaurs had feathers, or at least had all the right parts on their bodies to sprout feathers - especially the smaller dinos.

This is one artist's concept of a feathered Velociraptor - the murderous lady 'saur from the 1st Jurassic Park movie.....quite a bit different with feathers:
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mesozoic/images/f/f2/Velociraptor_u4hjbq.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150305015635

Triceratops:
img.over-blog-kiwi.com/2/04/69/30/20170224/ob_67127b_parrotceratops-s.jpg

T-rex:
img00.deviantart.net/f2e4/i/2013/141/0/a/study_of_jp2_male_t_rex_head_by_cheungchungtat-d5wgewz.jpg

I haven't seen Jurassic World yet, but I hope they embraced our new information about feathered dinosaurs!
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So dinosaurs had feathers on them Dorianne?

Our Raptor looks kinda like a Hawk too,but it's brown and has brown and white stripes on it's tail and it's about 1 foot tall.
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My Dad was a hunter, and we ate squirrel when I was little. I loved it. But wouldn't dare eat one now. Maybe that is why I won't eat meat anymore, who knows
Doriane , I am familiar with that cookbook. We have one that even has a recipe for opposum, and skunk. Eeew! But I guess if one is hungry enough.
I think I would just eat tree bark and grass.
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That might bring new meaning to the phrase, "hen-pecked."
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Afraid, Dorianne. Afraid!

There was an Onion article I remember about dolphins developing opposable thumbs; it quoted an Eminent Marine Biologist explaining how mankind had now definitely had it, with the closing message "and oh God we're so sorry about the radio collars - !"

Now that I know them better when I look at chickens I can't help suspecting that they're all thinking "we'll be back."
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smeshque and polarbear - when I left home, my step-grandma gifted me with a 2-volume, paperback edition of her favourite cookbook, and her mother's favourite cookbook: The Joy of Cooking.

There were instructions and actual recipes in the front for skinning and cooking squirrels and several other little animals that I could never imagine eating. I can't remember if racoons were in there, but probably!

Given the apocalyptic state of world politics, though, some part of me is wishing I still had that cookbook.
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And she may be crucial to flock discipline! Long live the queen!
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Now imagining a giant chicken towering over the landscape.

I was surprised to learn how many of the dinosaurs were feathered, even some of the big guys. Now everything the museums and Hollywood has taught me is wrong, and I don't know how to feel.
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I had to look up raptors just now to see what they were. Haha. I have one of those raptors, a hawk, perch on the trees in my backyard sometimes, eyeing the chickens. But the chickens are smart enough to hide themselves among the cacti so the hawk could never get to them. Unfortunately, they weren't strong enough or fast enough for the raccoons. One chicken got her head bitten off, another was carried away. And those two were young and younger hens. But nothing happened to the slow and aging 8 year old hen which doesn't lay eggs anymore. We don't have the heart to butcher the old girl as long as she is not sick. She just eats and hangs around with the flock.

smeshque - you're funny.  : ) I bet the early pioneers ate all kinds of games including raccoons.
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Same etymology - from the Latin rapio, rapere, rapui, raptus "to seize."

Lots of dinosaurs were raptors. And as for T Rex's closest living relatives, my son was thoughtfully watching our head chicken DeeDee and her underlings crossing our lawn on their morning expedition and remarked...

"Oh my God. Raptors!"

Yup. Beneath those cute plump feathery exteriors lurk souls of icy steel.
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You know what? I always thought a raptor was a type of dinosaur until I just looked it up and realized I'm thinking of velicorapators!!! Derp!

It did seem odd to me that a dinosaur would be out squirrel-hunting in 2018....
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Our dogs use to bring us gifts of rabbits and squirrels from the woods. Once they had killed a raccoon in the woods. It was about a 40 lb raccoon or bigger, it was so heavy. My DH and I carried it back from the woods and DH skinned it, we roasted it for the dogs, over an open fire outdoors and the dogs had a wonderful treat. We figured if they killed it, we shouldn't let it go to waste and so they had a meal of it. Funny thing, the raccoon meat roasting smelled really good. So if I was starving, maybe.....
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err...sorry about that...I see mally is right.It's Raptor,not Rapture...woops!
And Send,Your'e right,a total of 2 squirrels lost themselves,but at different times.
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Mally, that must be it.
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My JackRussell "Rascal" brought me squirrels,
a rat and a bunny. Such lovely gifts, he was such a generous dog. His sister "Ruckus" was a lap dog. I'm glad my cats don't go out. Got my Chewy order this afternoon. New litter boxes,
litter and lots of cat food....7 boxes in all.
I told the cats the Chewy boxes were new toys.
So far two paws up for speedy delivery.
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Raptor?
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So there were two squirrels taken by a rapture.
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No Send,A Rapture Bird Predator,like the one that chases away all my birds in my "Bird tree".
I thought it might be a Rapture because one other time,there was half an eaten squirrel in the back yard and I put a Frisbee over it and went to get a sack and this giant bird swooped down and took the part squirrel and flew off with it from under the Frisbee and my dH told me it was a Rapture.
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lol.
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Hands lifted high?
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Lu,
Are you saying that the squirrel hands were raptured?
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