[the_old_crowd] Re: Geese (was Holiday Greetings)

[Kat Macfarlane]

The trouble with defluffing both geese and cats is that you have to 
watch out for the collateral armaments. I have a part-bobcat boy named 
Tommy <http://www.katnmac.com/tommy.htm> that I wouldn't dream of 
washing; fortunately, he does a reputable job of washing himself, for 
which I am profoundly grateful. He weighs close to twenty pounds, is too 
big to fit in any sink I've got, and is solid muscle all the way down, 
with collateral teeth and claws that he has no reservations about using.

As for the geese of Juno Moneta 
<http://www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/moneta.html>, the story is really that 
the Gauls tried to scale the Capitoline, in order to come down on Rome, 
but the row raised by Juno's geese aroused the citizens and gave them 
time enough to drive the Gauls off. The Gauls never tried that one 
again, and around 400 years later, Julius Caesar and his legions 
civilized the Gauls and started them on the way to becoming French, 
which is not an unmixed blessing but good enough.

Historical (hysterical) purrs,

--Gatta

Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) wrote:
>
> La Gatta Macfarlane wrote in
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/5212 
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/5212>>:
>
> << Those honkers at the University of Washington were certainly no
> fifteen-pounders! More like the USS Nimitz coming ashore with blood in
> its eye! There's something about the S-curve of the neck and the
> downward slant of the wings that makes a sensible person want to get
> out of the vicinity real fast. >>
>
> Kneasy replied in
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/5213 
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/5213>>:
>
> << Yeah, impressive, isn't it? Fluffing up like that. Strip off the
> feathers, though and they shrink to an amazing degree. >>
>
> So do most cats when washed.
>
> << They make damn good watch-dogs, and unlike Rottweilers it's
> acceptable to eat them. Perfect. >>
>
> My late mother raised me on anecdotes of the flock of geese at the
> Temple of Juno Moneta fighting off the invading Gauls who had
> conquered all the rest of Rome.
>
>  



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