Man Dumps Chocolate Chips on Lawn to Deter Dogs

NBC San Diego ^ | 6/3 | Dave Summers and Monica Garske

[5th MEB]

This dumbass is just lucky it's not me and my Old Rolly; he ate a one pound Hershey Chocolate bar in the morning to get his heart kick started and one when I got home from work for playtime.
And before you all jump on me; I had my Old Rolly for 22 years, longer than I had my wife and kids at the time.
Got Married 2 months after I adopted him (he was already about a year old), my son was 21 when he died.
Never forget that old boy; he was a cross Chow/Golden Retriever, gave me the only visible scar I will carry for the rest of my life.
We were playing in the yard; I was down on my hands and knees when he reached out and smacked me on the nose, I saw stars, when I recovered we continued to play.
Later that evening my wife asked me what happened to my face. That old boy left a scar that starts just below the corner of my right eye, goes down across the bridge of my nose and ends at the lower left corner of my left eye.
Rolly loved chocolate and I miss that big boy everyday, I will miss him for the rest of my life.

[Titan Magroyne]

I dunno about dogs in general having a fondness for spicy. Like me, my dominant dog likes to taste her food rather than burn her tongue clean off. But then there’s the laborador & my friend’s home-grown cherry bomb peppers. We expected her to give up on the bit of inedible (to me) human food, & she indeed spit out the morsel on the floor in puzzlement a few times - but she finished off the tidbit herself.

Darndest thing. To this day she’ll still accept anything he hands her, LOL.

[Titan Magroyne]

>>> We have moles and prairie dogs and we put 15-minute highway flares down their holes and then fill the hole behind it. The smoke pops out of every tunnel and hole in their network and so do the moles and prairie dogs!

Finding myself wishing for a “like” button on this site. No moles at the current home, but would have taken advantage of this tip at the previous address!

[Titan Magroyne]

Oh hey, I figure you’re about the only person in the world who would rejoice with me that my wild buddy basement black snake has returned. No sign of it last year, no shed skins around anywheres, so I thought he/she/it had moved on.

Couple-three weeks ago, I glimpsed ‘im sunning in the usual spot on the parking pad behind the house. Mentioned ‘im to m’darlin who also ‘preciates the free vermin control.

Not quite so welcome last week when Darlin stepped into the open doorway to get a face-full of snake... Making itself a little TOO comfie, snake-buddy was dangling by the middle from a pipe and hanging head-and-tail into the opening. (It was sunny southern exposure & I’m guessing this is a yoga position for herps.) Quite an impressively lengthy buggar, Darlin says.

Now see I can’t share any of that with my parents, not if I want them to keep coming back for cookouts & whatnot. My Mom’s snake dance is not motivated by joy, if y’know whut Ah mean. ;o)

[Salamander]

Lucky you!

The only snakes I’ve seen this year were 4 dead ones on the road.

How the drivers didn’t crash trying to kill them eludes me.

One was lying smashed, halfway up a sidewalk.

:-\

[Titan Magroyne]

Sad. I didn’t mourn the occasion I saw a feller back & fill a few times over a copperhead, but the pure meanness of killing a harmless critter “just because” ticks me right off. Peeps don’t seem to understand how it says so much more about the person than about the value of the worthless animal.

[Salamander]

They might when they’re up to their asses in plague rats and mice.

CT instituted a pogrom against their “dangerous rattlesnakes”.

They were so successful that the mice who are the crucial stage vectors for the Lyme tick nymphs flourished.

What might have been just a localized disease is now nationwide.

Thanks, CT.

What people do not understand is that *all* snake behavior is defense, *not* offensive.

Snakes do not “attack” but they might defend themselves from being attacked.

That article about the people suing their realtor for selling them a “house full of black snakes”.

It has not occurred to them to question *why* the snakes are there?

There’s only one answer.

An abundant food source.

Just wait until the snakes are exterminated.

Then they’ll find out there are things worse than snakes.

[Salamander]

http://www.cdc.gov/rodents/

[CAluvdubya]

Now I live in Rocklin,

I remember when Rocklin and Roseville were separated by open land..... when going to Rocklin from Roseville seemed sort of far away..... when there was no Galleria mall.

Man, now I feel old! :D

[SamAdams76]

This is a weird thread. I've lived in the suburbs most of my life and have been surrounded by neighbors dogs as well as my own.

Never once have I had a problem. The occasional pile of dog feces has never once resulted in a confrontation.

I'm thinking the guy in this article is just an overreactive cranky old man. I'd like to see pictures of his yard to see just how big a problem this really is.

Dogs, like all animals, urinate and defecate in the open. My yard is overrun with squirrels, birds, deer, raccoons and such. They have to go somewhere, don't they? I doubt they have sanitary latrines setup for themselves in the deep woods. Yet I still go out walking barefoot in my yard and I don't worry about it.

What about swimming in a lake or in the ocean? You are swimming with the fishes who all have to excrement their bodily waste. Even in a swimming pool, you are exposed. Surely you don't think that 5-year-old brat nephew of yours is going to come out of the pool to use the bathroom in the house do you? Of course not, he's going to let it rip and YOU are going to be swimming around in it.

People get so worked up over nonsense.

[Titan Magroyne]

The problem with a copperhead is usual copperhead behavior. They expect you to spot & avoid them even if you’re taking a step down your own front porch. It’s a defensive bite, yes, because it won’t leave upon sensing vibration from an approaching person, allowing the unaware human to come dangerously close... whereupon it is forced to deliver a deadly bite.

I have my limits as to what’s acceptable in my own home. That’s why I encourage the presence of my black snake friend - because obviously my environment supports snakes.

[Salamander]

Himself sent me out into the yard to find the reading glasses he thought he dropped while mowing.

I did not find them but I did spy a snake tail.

Fearing that the tail and the rest of the snake might no longer be connected, considering the recent mowing, I gently poked it with my toe.

[please God please God let it be okay!]

Up popped a little Garter snake face, looking quite annoyed.

Then Odin came zooming over to also see what I was examining.
For whatever weird reason, he *loves* snakes and started to offer it his usual nose/rump bump, which works okay for 7 foot Boas but not 1 foot Garters.

I shoved him away from the little guy and herded it up into the fence row where it could be out of the way of great clomping Dobe feets.

Obviously, this was like the high point of my whole frigging summer.

I have no life.

:)

[Salamander]

There is critter crap everywhere.

If not land critters, birds and fish.

Trying to keep “your world” free of it would surely drive you mad.

I agree with your cranky coot assessment.

I have, however, mostly stopped walking barefoot in my yard.

Everything else, you can see.

Cats leave hidden land mines.

[Titan Magroyne]

Oh jeez. Yeah, I didn’t think to mention or ask about “my” snake’s return home until fresh after a mowing. (Oops) He said he hadn’t killed it on purpose, then had to elaborate that he hadn’t at all, far as he knew. Soon after was when it put in the inverted doorway appearance, confirming that yep it’s OK.

[Salamander]

*whew!*

[I’d club hubby for that]

:D

[Titan Magroyne]

*chuckle*

My fault for not having mentioned it the morning of. He’s a very humble, sweet guy who was bracing himself for an over the top,unpleasant reaction. Prior spouse was an unpredictable yet predictably ill-tempered unmentionable. [See, I didn’t say it.]