Still following livejournal, though I'm doing most of my stuff on facebook nowadays.

Dog intervenes between man and mountain lion
-LA Times, May 6th 5:47 AM PDT (link)

"A dog that a Wildomar man once saved from being put to sleep threw himself between his master and a marauding mountain lion at Lake Elsinore on Tuesday.

The dog -- a mixed breed named Hoagie -- and the mountain lion fought a ferocious battle at one of the lake's campgrounds that saved the man's life and nearly killed the dog, who was rushed into four hours of surgery, according to authorities."



This sounds like such a great angle. Man's best friend "threw itself between his master and a marauding mountain lion," without a care for the vicious mauling it would receive. What bravery! What selfless sacrifice! Oh, wait...


Did Hoagie start the fight with mountain lion?
-LA Times, May 6th 10:00 PDT (link)

"But state wildlife officials threw cold water on that account Wednesday, saying further investigation indicates that the inspiring story of canine derring-do may have been overblown.

Two game wardens searched the Bluejay Campground in the Santa Ana Mountains in Orange County and interviewed Morse. Based on the evidence, they say, Hoagie attacked the mountain lion, not vice versa.

"The report we got was that the dog went up to a mountain lion and the mountain lion ran away and the dog chased it and was mauled," said Harry Morse, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game."



Doh! Nevermind the fact that the guy was travelling with his wife and dog, and that mountain lions that do go mankiller almost invariably attack solitary targets. When I read the second article I immediately wondered how the dog could have attacked the mountain lion in the first place. Its owner was going to the bathroom when the attack occured... so wasn't somebody holding the dog's leash?

I'm going to be a speculating asshole and assume that the dog wasn't being properly leashed. Thats not uncommon at all when people are hiking in back country, but its a real danger to the dog when its in an environment with natural predators. I would never dream of being so negligent with my dogs when hiking in the Shenandoahs because they will chase anything. Regardless, unleashed dogs can also be a big danger to native wildlife because most of the time the dog is the bigger animal.

I might have more sympathy for Hoagie's owner, but who names their dog after a fucking sandwich?

I've been blogging on livejournal for a few weeks now, and I have to admit that I'm REALLY surprised at how few of my friends are still active here. Everybody seems to have moved on to Facebook, blogspot, wordpress, or given up the ghost of blogging entirely.

Definitely weird. I can tell that LJ's changed a lot since I last seriously blogged here. The two most apparent changes are all the advertisements and concerns about censorship in communities. That doesn't seem like reason enough for people to have just stopped though. Was there a cataclysmic earth shaking event that changed everything? Or did people just get tired of the format here?

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