Thursday, April 20, 2006
at
11:04 a.m.
|
Above: a couple of photos I took along with a caption I wrote about a raccoon in a precarious perch on Monday, April 17.Sometimes it just feels like there's not much to say, so this blog has been pretty dead for the past week or so. On my walk home on Monday, however, I stumbled across this cute little news item of a raccoon who was stranded on top of a street light just around the corner from my building.
I could see a news crew and several people staring towards what I thought was a rooftop so I figured there was a celebrity or some sort of filming going on. Normally I wouldn't stop, but I was curious and after a moment or two spotted the 20 lb. raccoon on top of a VERY tall street light.
Finding this fascinating, I went home and grabbed my camera and Catherine and we returned to snap a few picks. Most of the people seemed nice, but one young woman in her early 20s thought it was fun to go over and kick the pole to try and jar the raccoon loose. No one said anything, as the woman quickly moved away. No one was impressed.
After snapping a few picks and going home, we made sure that despite the presence of CTV that the city was notified about the critter's peril and we were assured that they knew and were sending a "cherry picker" to get the little guy down.
CTV later revealed that the raccoon got down safe and sound and that it had been up there for about 30 hours in the same position. It was quite warm on Monday as well, making it uncomfortable to say the least.
An article in the Toronto Sun covered part of the story (leaving out the outcome which isn't surprising as I know the sloppy journalist, a fellow j-schooler, who wrote the article).
From the article:
Panhandler Shawn Bedder, who saw the animal Sunday night and tried calling the fire department, the city and animal services to no avail.
"I finally got fed up and called the media. Five minutes later the city came," a frustrated Bedder said.
Toronto Animal Services officer Rick Ray said they were helpless to save the animal, pointing out the animal was more likely to fall during a rescue operation.
"We're looking at every angle to try to get him safe," Ray said, noting the raccoon was capable of shimmying down the pole, but unlikely to do so amid a throng of onlookers. "If he's hungry enough, he's going to come down."
In other news, I had my first taste of teacher's college and an orientation session. Everything seems on track and I just have to fill out tons of paperwork before I even get into school in September. They sure don't want to make things easy for you. Getting in is only half the battle.
Posted by
Parallel
0 comments:
Post a Comment