Sunday, August 23, 2015

Peccary Pain and Corn Silk

We had some unwanted excitement Saturday morning. While walking the dog in the desert, Ginger (the dog) unexpectedly ran into a small javelina family of 4. Being that they are fairly blind and deaf, they were startled and defended themselves instinctually. This meant Ginger got 4 nasty cuts, some stitches, and the cone of shame.

It also was lucky she didn't get a punctured lung, arterial bleeding, or a one-way ticket to doggy heaven.
It turned out better than it looks. She's doing good, just recovering from a beating she took at the hands of some nasty homeless brutes.


On a lighter note, the silks in my corn plot came out this week and many of the stalks have ears now with silks.

The tassels are anthers, male flowers with pollen.

The pollen is wind born to the silks. Silks are the female flowers and each silk is a pollen tube for each kernel. Hopefully the ears will be full of kernels. I suppose I could try to manually spread the pollen. I did this morning give a stalk a shake and blow towards the other stalks, but that seemed futile.

4 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, glad Ginger was not hurt worse. I hope she has a speedy and uneventful recovery. Oh, that Cone Of Shame! My vet switched to a plasticized cloth version, which they still can't chew with, but they can walk around the house without banging into things and making a lot of noise.

    Your veggies look good!

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  2. Oh my, that's what you were referring to. Sorry to hear, but glad your dog is healing. I know someone who has had dog encounters with javelina, and once, after the mother gored his dog, she went after him! (they tumbled down the hill, and hegot away)

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    Replies
    1. As a kid in Tucson, coyotes attacked my cocker spaniel poodle mix while my dad was walking him. They missed the jugular, but it was super close.

      Every javelina I've run into ran away. Not very aggressive, but like anything, one cornered, they can be dangerous. I befriended a homeless guy named Marvin. He said javelinas were troublesome to him at night. They would invade his camp, without fear.

      I'll post pictures of the wild burros that roam by our house later.

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