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Lamb on the Run: Maybe we could get a few pythons to stop the rabbits

By Jim Lamb

Published: Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:19 PM MST

The people in San Francisco don’t have enough to worry about…

…In the Chronicle a week ago, Thursday, Steve Rubenstein wrote about the potential threat of huge, 250-pound Burmese pythons that may be working their way west…They’re believed to be pets that escaped or were released by their former owners and now are moving through the Florida Everglades and heading west.

…These giant reptiles supposedly can strangle and eat a whole alligator in one sitting…

…Without ketchup or fries…

…They slither about 20 miles a month and it would take a very determined Burmese python to get to San Francisco in about 2020…That is if it could crawl through the Arizona deserts or Colorado Rockies…

Reading down the road … “AMONIA” … “CALIL” That’s lilac, the flower, spelled backwards says the owner … “SKARTCH” … “HOT SI” … “ANIESMG” on a snazzy red MG convertible … and from the state’s list of license plates “A1BADCAR” and “A2TWEETY” although those each have eight characters…hmm…

…There are more than 335,000 specialty plates issued by the state…See them at https://servicearizona.com/webapp/vehicle/plates/start.do

A correction…of sorts…In last Friday’s GVN, I wrote about the new community directories…But I forgot to include that you can take your old one, minus the slick cover, to the Lions’ recycling bin for disposal…

…The Green Valley Community Coordinating Council does a great job every year producing the directories…

Every once in a while you see a swimming pool described as an “Olympic sized swimming pool,” as some describe the pool at the Canoa Ranch recreation center, now under construction…Not so, says a local expert…Ted Haartz, ex-officio member of the board of directors, USA Swimming and a United States Master Swimmer…

…In a memo last year he said he’d like to have an “Olympic” size swimming pool, but to qualify it must be 50 meters in length by 25 meters in width with a minimum depth of two meters…

… “A swimming pool ‘Yes.’ Olympic size ‘No,’” he wrote…

A couple more “Curiosity (almost) Killed the You What” stories…

…A cat took a three-week cross country ride to Arizona in a storage container…But he was sent home safely…

…Meatloaf, the cat, crawled into a locker at a Pompano Beach, Fla., house while a man loaded it for a move to Phoenix…The container was held in a Florida warehouse and on a semitrailer before arriving in Phoenix…

…Back in Florida, Meatloaf’s owners put up signs around the neighborhood, but he was too far away to read them…When the locker was opened there was a hungry, thirsty cat, but otherwise unharmed…The man who moved remembered seeing the cat in his old neighborhood and made arrangements to send it back…

…Then in Manhattan a cat belonging to woman on a subway train got out of its carrier and disappeared onto one of the platforms when the doors opened…The woman had just taken the cat to a vet and was taking it home…

…Some strap hangers reported hearing the cat’s meows near the station, and finally two subway workers walked down the tunnel making “meow” sounds that lured the cat out…

…The cat was lucky…It didn’t get mugged by a couple of subway Ratzillas…

There’s a state Senate committee that’s debating a bill to permit students and staff at community colleges and state universities to carry guns on campus for protecton…

…In a compromise, the committee said no to letting students in kindergarten through grade 12 carry protection…

…Which is probably a good idea…I’ve known some mean, short-tempered 5-year-olds…

There are several environmental issues coming to a head in the GV-Sahuarita area and there’ll be an open house Saturday to discuss them…

…The meeting will be at 10 a.m. at the Community Church, northwest corner of Esperanza and La Canada…

…A number of environmental groups will send speakers to talk about such things at the proposed Copper Mine at Rosemont in the Santa Ritas, a planned housing development near the entrance to Madera Canyon and preserving the West Desert Preserve, a state land area southwest of town toward the mine…

Jim Lamb’s a reporter for the Green Valley News who’s always looking for a good laugh or two to fill the above space. Call him at 547-9749.


Along the Way: Know where you live, what makes it special		The Old Scout: Why are they looking at the skinny guy?

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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of gvnews.com.

Matt wrote on Aug 9, 2009 11:41 PM:

" I liked the article. It gives good basic info about some ways to prevent problems with your pets teeth or at least to lessen a future dental problem if it should arise. I would however like to be able to find reference about vets in my area that have experience with pet dental health through continued education and more importantly, their real experience in. Ie. how many dental cleanings and extractions have they done and at what rate of success compared to a state average or a local average. It would also be nice to be able to link from here to someplace that keeps track of adverse findings and/or complaints against vets. This would help the pet owners and their pets stay very much and is a much needed service with so many vets out there today "

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