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Y'know... My dad once had a cat when he was a kid. It was pretty good at keeping the local bird population in check. (And keeping the neighbors' dogs off the property, at that, too. There was one dog that would not come within ten feet of the property because of that cat.)
There was one particular incident, though. A song bird was sitting on a high branch, about thirteen feet off the ground (say about 4.5 meters), and it was looking down and taunting the cat. There was simply no other word for it. The bird was looking down at this cat, and twittering away like as though it was saying, "Nyaa, nyaa! You can't get me!"
And then the cat, like he had been sitting on a spring-loaded platform, rocketed up into the air and snatched the bird off the limb.
This bird had better watch itself.
(It would be one thing if it was only politicians it'd go after, but it's going after everyone in general. Not cool at all, really.)
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Alas, we used to have a cat sanctuary on Parliament Hill, but it was closed a couple of years ago because of budget cuts.
(Draw your own conclusions about political measures vs. compassion...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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Rob, that was a clear matter of self preservation. Cats keep out the vermin, after all.
Black, where did that cat start from? Because about 4 meters is a pretty good height by any measure.
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With four paws flat on the dirt.
Maybe I messed up my mental math, but my dad was very explicit that the limb was thirteen-feet above the ground and not an inch lower.
Yes, this cat was a freaking bad-ass, but bear in mind that it was an outdoor cat in a tiny rural neighborhood a good ways up in the Cascade Mountains. Very rugged terrain with plenty of critters that would eat a cat if given the chance.
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... I'm duly impressed Black.
And don't worry about the math, it works out if you presume 1 foot is 1/3rd a meter and round to the nearest half, which is a good enough rule of thumb. The actual measurement is 30.48cm though, so you're off by a foot for every 10 feet you are converting from.
