I don't want to go on the cart!

Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down!

When our cat was still young and still learning about hunting it caught a chipmunk but it either was not sure what to do with the chipmunk or it was just practicing. The cat would drop the chipmunk, let it get a little ways away then pounce on it and grab it with it's mouth then drop it again.... I was on the deck watching it play with the chipmunk for a minute when I realized the cat was not going to kill it right away. Feeling bad for the chipmunk (never feel bad for chipmunks) I went down to the cat and managed to scare it off after it dropped the chipmunk. I thought I was a safe distance away but terrified chipmunks are really fast and I guess this one decided my shorts (it was summer) were the closest safe haven. It got up to my knee before I managed to shake it off. But then it just went for the other leg. So I ended up dancing like a lunatic and screaming like Homer while the chipmunk would go from leg to leg trying to make it to the insides my shorts. Fortunately, after several rounds of this, the cat decided it want it's toy back and pounced on the chipmunk again. I beat a hasty retreat back to the deck and started yelling at the cat, "Just kill it, kill the damn thing." Everyone will be happy to know that eventually the cat got bored and let the chipmunk get away.

"Is not rat, is hamster."

Not feral, but still damn proud of her mouse.

So the guy went from being a bleeding heart liberal unable to allow nature to take its course to a bleeding mouth/nose/anus liberal unwilling to allow nature to run its course (on him)?

steerforth: srsly? yer siniasrly.

Well, I laughed so hard I almost cried. +1 for you.

steerforth: Alkony: danielscissorhands: Up until I read the article, I falsely assumed that the black death plague had been annihilated, but, apparently not.

Yersinia pestis is endemic to (naturally found in) several areas around the world. It's a known hazard to rodent researchers in the south western US because it can infect many more mammals than rats. Flea transmission is the most well described vector, but it's a blood borne pathogen, exposure of infected blood to an open wound could also transmit it.

It's usually treatable if detected early, but it's difficult past a certain point because the bacterium has multiple methods of shutting down the victim's immune response. More info.

Does anyone know why it is endemic in certain parts of the world, such as yours, and yet is unheard of in other parts, such as mine (temperate east coast Australia, with a reasonably similar climate to California)?

Because God already blessed Australia with enough deadly critters.

The My Little Pony Killer: That article didn't answer the most important question of all. Why was he trying to take a mouse away from a stray cat?

Feral cats are not your friends.

Seriously, stray cat?

Only a fool takes food out of a domesticated animals mouth, but to try that shiat on a stray animal takes a lasagna of layered derp and tard.