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A Fun Little Nature-Themed Happening. AKA: Too Much Anthropomorphising

I guess human houses are very much like caves, plus we tend to have waste about that attracts flies. Therefore magnets for spiders (and cats, what is it with cats and flies?)
 
Not so sure how closely this relates to the op but your kindness to insects reminds me of strange little happening when I was decorating the living room a few years ago.
I sadly hadn’t noticed a small ladybird as I was slapping white emulsion onto the wall. By the time I realised what it was the poor thing was entirely smothered in paint, like a fairly big blob - insect no longer even visible :oops:

I was extremely upset about this cruel, if unintentional, twist of fate, but set out to remedy the situation with torn up kitchen roll strips and a box of cotton buds (q-tips) immediately. I had next to no faith in this procedure and not even a small clue as to where it’s legs were,etc, but decided to operate hastily as the paint would soon stiffen and entomb my little friend.

It took a long time. I’ve never worked on anything so carefully and presicely in my life (possibly!). The paint was extremely difficult to remove, especially from small nooks and crannies, but I couldn’t leave a spot for fear of it later drying and causing a lifelong handicap - or a slow, uncomfortable death.

After finishing up I lay the tiny, stunned thing on a dry piece of tissue and went about my business.
I was amazed and so damned happy to later discover my ladybird make a few tentative steps across the tissue then pull itself together fully back to life! I watched it for a good while and all was well.

Many times later, even weeks after, whenever I spied a ladybird in the house I wondered whether it had bonded with me and decided to stay around. Fanciful claptrap perhaps, it probably cursed me and got the hell out.
 
That's beautiful, Merricat.

No joke, a couple of weeks ago I went out front after a rain and saw a moth fluttering near a mud puddle. Its feet were stuck and it kept fluttering until its wings got wet too.

It calmed down and kind of accepted its fate, but since I had seen it I felt compelled....I gently pulled it out of the mud, then placed it on the concrete sidewalk until the sun could dry its wings. After that, it flew up and landed on a tree nearby.

Two days later, I'm walking through a park and decide to sit down on a bench. A butterfly (a Red Admiral, if memory serves) landed on the side of my shoe, for, as near as I can tell, no good reason. It just sat there flexing its wings and hanging out for a solid couple of minutes before flying off on its own to do the things that butterflies do.

I may be a fool, but I took it as a sign that I did the right thing, saving that moth.
 
I'm all for ignoring spiders and letting them do their thing, but there was one HUGE one on the ceiling over my bed last night. I tried to ignore it, I tried send it 'walk over towards the wall' vibes, but it just hung there.

Reader, I flicked it off with a blanket. Which is now in the corner and I may never go over there again.
 
I won't hesistate to rescue insects I find stranded on the pavement, even ones most people wouldn't touch, like hornets. Curiously enough, every rescue of one, via suitably long, sturdy stick, has gone perfectly smoothly - they cling on readily, stay still and calm when being transported to safety, and walk off onto flower or bush, no issues at all. Everything else can get agitated, understandably, particularly bees, but not hornets. Wonder why?

A related, whimsical oddity - there's a stretch of pavement on my late night walks home from a friend's home that pretty regularly is alive with pill woodlice, anything from dozens, to hundreds, to even thousands, making it extremely challenging for an incurable softy like me to get by without squashing any. I can only imagine the amusement of passing drivers watching a full-grown man gingerly picking his way along the pavement on tiptoes, like a half-drunken parody of a cartoon sneak-thief.

Oh, and spiders don't generally bother me, except that one time I leant over my bed to the small bookcase the other side to get something, and only belatedly noticed the giant house spider crouched at one top corner, just a couple of inches from my face. I backed off pretty quickly!
 
We had a wasp in the warehouse a few weeks ago when it was really warm. So I got some blue roll and it simple walked on it and sat there while I carried it outside. I found it rather strange that it almost felt like it knew that i was going to transport it outside.

Wasps are bastards usually but it is early summer so it was quite calm.
 
There's a chap who holds regular garage sales near me.
One day whilst browsing he tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a spider on the garage wall. He was terrified.
It was a bit high for me so I said it would wander off into the garden.
A bit later one of his friends came, took it by the leg and threw it.
 
2 years on and I still love a good spider.
While looking for something completely unrealted to this thread, I found out that there are such things as the Robo Alive Crawling Spider!
Agghh! But you might like it, Ghost In The Machine.
(Forgive me, I didn't dare go to the site so I could provide the whole link for you.)
 
We had a wasp in the warehouse a few weeks ago when it was really warm. So I got some blue roll and it simple walked on it and sat there while I carried it outside. I found it rather strange that it almost felt like it knew that i was going to transport it outside.

Wasps are bastards usually but it is early summer so it was quite calm.
One of our customers complained about a wasp in her yurt almost a week ago .. I couldn't find it so I left two complementary open mini jam jars in there instead ..
 
(In response to observations on that other thread that deer are taking over Britain, that foxes are pests, and that reintroducing wolves would result in ghastly death by evisceration for the deer, a fate worse than death by hunter's bullet, I posted:
Well, okay, wolves are smart and social, but have no opposable thumbs, so aren't good candidates for learning the responsible handling of firearms. I always thought they went for the jugular vein, which would be a quicker way to go than by evisceration--being drawn and quartered like a medieval thief is one of the few deaths that strike me as more painful.

To speak up for foxes: they DO keep rabbit and rat populations down.
And cats have contributed to the extinction of bird species, plus are in great danger from cars, so should be kept inside (with ample means to amuse themselves). I do love them very much despite their violent tendencies.

And now I will acknowledge that I am WAY off topic--I got lost on the forum and thought I was in the "A Fun Little Nature-Themed Happening. AKA: Too Much Anthropomorphising" thread instead of this one!

Post now moved to its originally intended location.

The Mods are gracious and attentive beyond any I have ever known!
 
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While looking for something completely unrealted to this thread, I found out that there are such things as the Robo Alive Crawling Spider!
Agghh! But you might like it, Ghost In The Machine.
(Forgive me, I didn't dare go to the site so I could provide the whole link for you.)
I know what I'm getting for my bday now! (Not for a few months, sadly).

I have a user name on another forum that has the word 'spider' in it and I had to stop using spider avatars as some people find it triggering...
 
One of our customers complained about a wasp in her yurt almost a week ago .. I couldn't find it so I left two complementary open mini jam jars in there instead ..

That's not a euphemism is it?

Once I watched a cockchafer (I know, I know) munch away for ages on shasta daisy pollen. When finished it crawled under the petals and stayed there. To me it's body language was saying "I ate too muuuuuch!"
 
Gah, if I still worked retail, I'd complain to my coworkers, "Yeah, that one gal, she surely had a wasp in her yurt." I'm never forgetting this.

Edit: And you're to blame, Swifty.
 
I had to laugh on a hot day last week. School holidays and two apparently very drunk teenage girls were making a bloody noisy nuisance of themselves on the street . Staggering about and dropping to the ground every other step. I'd had enough and went out to challenge them expecting a gob full of abuse, all I got was that they were picking up caterpillars from the road and putting them on the grass bank so they wouldn't get "squished". There were loads on the road and with a shamed face I helped them pick up the rest.
 
I'm sure some of you have seen something about this newly released research:
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/18/733615938/scientists-explain-puppy-dog-eyes
The study suggests that certain eyebrow muscles in dogs gave them an evolutionary advantage due to the way humans anthropomorphize animals.
Note that the scientist in this interview, Anne Burrows, calls humans "this weird species that decided to bring other species to live . . . in our house."
 
I'm sure some of you have seen something about this newly released research:
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/18/733615938/scientists-explain-puppy-dog-eyes
The study suggests that certain eyebrow muscles in dogs gave them an evolutionary advantage due to the way humans anthropomorphize animals.
Note that the scientist in this interview, Anne Burrows, calls humans "this weird species that decided to bring other species to live . . . in our house."


Hmmm... I'm never quite sure what to think about studies like this, to be honest.

But earlier studies they've done suggest that this relatively small inner eyebrow movement in pooches that makes their eyes look larger and more baby-like evokes a protective instinct in people.

Speaking as someone who's never had a maternal instinct in her life (e.g. babies crying make me feel annoyed rather than concerned!) I'm not sure how looking more baby-like would appeal to me... and yet I melt into a puddle of goo at the sight of puppies. So perhaps when they say "baby-like" are they referring to babies of any species as opposed to just human?

I've seen the dog-expression of which they speak, on all the dogs which Mr Zebra and I have owned over the years, and it definitely makes me want to cuddle said dog, so... I dunno.

One thing is for sure... dogs are clever little tykes and they know how to appeal to their owners! :)
 
Hmmm... I'm never quite sure what to think about studies like this, to be honest.



Speaking as someone who's never had a maternal instinct in her life (e.g. babies crying make me feel annoyed rather than concerned!) I'm not sure how looking more baby-like would appeal to me... and yet I melt into a puddle of goo at the sight of puppies. So perhaps when they say "baby-like" are they referring to babies of any species as opposed to just human?

I've seen the dog-expression of which they speak, on all the dogs which Mr Zebra and I have owned over the years, and it definitely makes me want to cuddle said dog, so... I dunno.

One thing is for sure... dogs are clever little tykes and they know how to appeal to their owners! :)

Oh yes, when we sit sadly eating our bodyweight in biscuits to console us for the latest mammary-skyward event, and the dog comes and puts a consoling paw on our knee... we read it as 'I feel your pain, empathise with it and lend you some of my strength'.

And the dog thinks 'biscuitbiscuitbiscuitbiscuitbiscuit...'
 
Babies fill me with anxiety, and the sound of crying babies fills me with anxiety AND hurts my ears. To understand many people's response to babies, I have to think of kittens.

The commentaries I've been hearing on news media call the expression "puppy dog eyes."

These eyebrow muscles, which have evolved in dogs, and which wolves don't have, enable a dog to give you that "can you help me?" look.
It has given dogs with a more developed eyebrow muscle an advantage in that humans are more inclined to respond favorably, indulgently, helpfully when that muscle goes into action. "Puppy dog eyes" show humans that the dog wants to eat their food, not them.
("Can you help me by giving me a biscuit,? And another and another and another . . . ")

Dogs apparently use this expression only with humans, not when interacting with other dogs. Stay tuned! Further research is planned.
 
Babies fill me with anxiety, and the sound of crying babies fills me with anxiety AND hurts my ears.

Ohh heck yeah. Exactly.


These eyebrow muscles, which have evolved in dogs, and which wolves don't have, enable a dog to give you that "can you help me?" look.
It has given dogs with a more developed eyebrow muscle an advantage in that humans are more inclined to respond favorably, indulgently, helpfully when that muscle goes into action. "Puppy dog eyes" show humans that the dog wants to eat their food, not them.
("Can you help me by giving me a biscuit,? And another and another and another . . . ")

Awww, even just reading that is making me feel all... squishy and emotional.

I'm off to give ZebraPup a hug now... (and a biscuit)
 
My youngest works in a high end designer shop for fashion victims in a retail outlet. (Think, shirts that cost over 100 quid, etc). They have daily targets like shift 25,000 quids' worth of stock and it's only a small shop, put it that way.

Yesterday he came home and said he was in the stockroom and someone told him to go outside and look at the dead mouse. So he went outside to look at the dead mouse (he's 16). It wasn't inside the building - outside so just a random mouse, not that they're infested. But it still amused me to think of yards away from all those people spending hundreds of pounds on a few items of clothing - dead mouse. And that two lads in the stockroom thought it was the highlight of their day to go look at it...

At least he didn't poke it with a stick.
 
My youngest works in a high end designer shop for fashion victims in a retail outlet. (Think, shirts that cost over 100 quid, etc). They have daily targets like shift 25,000 quids' worth of stock and it's only a small shop, put it that way.

Yesterday he came home and said he was in the stockroom and someone told him to go outside and look at the dead mouse. So he went outside to look at the dead mouse (he's 16). It wasn't inside the building - outside so just a random mouse, not that they're infested. But it still amused me to think of yards away from all those people spending hundreds of pounds on a few items of clothing - dead mouse. And that two lads in the stockroom thought it was the highlight of their day to go look at it...

At least he didn't poke it with a stick.

He should come and stare in my downstairs bathroom, where Arthur has left yet another dead rodent in the bath. The novelty wears off pretty fast.
 
Oh yes, when we sit sadly eating our bodyweight in biscuits to console us for the latest mammary-skyward event, and the dog comes and puts a consoling paw on our knee... we read it as 'I feel your pain, empathise with it and lend you some of my strength'.

And the dog thinks 'biscuitbiscuitbiscuitbiscuitbiscuit...'

Was looking for that Victorian painting of the man holding a letter and crying, while a big dog rests its chin on his knee. Can find lots of others but not that one, grr!
 
He should come and stare in my downstairs bathroom, where Arthur has left yet another dead rodent in the bath. The novelty wears off pretty fast.
Hopefully, it would get old very fast if he saw it daily... Made me laugh though, as we think of him as so grown up now - and then there he is, in his designer clothes (they have to wear the brand in the shop), being all grown up... rushing out to look at a dead mouse like he's 9.
 
Hopefully, it would get old very fast if he saw it daily... Made me laugh though, as we think of him as so grown up now - and then there he is, in his designer clothes (they have to wear the brand in the shop), being all grown up... rushing out to look at a dead mouse like he's 9.

When I used to take my kids for a day out at Rhyl on the train the highlight of one visit was the sight of a dead sheep on the beach. They were bloody FASCINATED. Had to bribe them with ice cream to get them away from it.*

I often pass the area now and always think of that ghoulish little interlude.

*For anyone who knows the area it's the Blue Bridge end. Back in the day that beach stank exactly like the sluice on the Stroke Rehab Unit where I used to work. It's all been developed now and smells no longer.
 
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