My cat gallops

I have a black cat named Orion who normally moves about silently on the soft pads of his feet. But occasionally he will run accross the wood floor deliberately using his claws to make a noise like a horse galloping. He usually ends his gallop by jumping onto a throw rug, causing it to slide into a wall or door.

I also have a deer that visits my back yard late at night to eat from my bird feeders. I would not believe it either had I not seen the evidence. These are cylindrical feeders, one clear plastic and the other metal, with small holes and perches for the birds. The deer manages to clean out both feeders on each visit, without knocking them down or damaging them in any way.

I have never actually witnessed this, but unless some other entity has figured out how to walk on deer feet, leaving no other tracks in the snow, the deed is being done by one very clever deer!

I grew up on a dairy farm and we once had a cow that would open a door in the side of a barn, hold the door open with her body while any other cows that wanted to walked into the barn and then would walk into the barn herself. I did witness this happening. We had to drill a hole and put a bolt through the latch of the door to stop her.

The point of this post, I guess, is that we humans have a tendency to believe that we possess far superior intelligence to that of other animal species. As with any arrogance, this leads us to underestimate the intelligence of other animals. What do you think?

Immigration, what a mess.

Today I'm disgusted with the whole immigration mess we have in this country. Due to various free trade agreements, goods can travel back and forth accross our borders unimpeded. Not so people.

Powerful companies want to be able to hire illegal immigrants at low wages instead of having to improve wages or working conditions to attract US workers. They like the fact that these folks are here illegally so they can't complain to our legal system when they are mistreated, and they are less likely to be able to move on to a better job.

There is a whole industry that exists for the sole purpose of making money by smuggling people accross the US/Mexico border. Arguably, poor working people in both countries (and all other countries illegal immigrants come from) are the victims of this industry.

So, should the US just build their own Berlin Wall and be done with it? Would that be better than the current situation in which both immigrant and domestic workers are the victims and the ones making a tidy profit are the smugglers and the companies hiring illegals?

What's it all about?