The relaxing non judgemental random thoughts thread

MypinchofItaly said:
Stop looking for and those who get offended or annoyed because I have a life - particularly complicated lately. I’m fed up, really.
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Sounds like you’re dealing with some jealousy from some of the people around you - just keep living your life the way you want to live it, you can’t do much with other people’s negative feelings.
 
Sorry to hear you are going under the knife. I've had a total of nine surgeries over the years and they are always unpleasant. But some of them have saved my life like the heart and cancer surgeries so I'm thankful for them. It sounds like I think there is a bright side to surgery but I don't think there is. They are a necessary evil.
Windigo said:
My prayers have been heard, the regular surgeon is on holiday and I am getting a temp one who is much more to my liking. Surgery will be in 6 to 8 weeks 👍
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blades said:
Sorry to hear you are going under the knife. I've had a total of nine surgeries over the years and they are always unpleasant. But some of them have saved my life like the heart and cancer surgeries so I'm thankful for them. It sounds like I think there is a bright side to surgery but I don't think there is. They are a necessary evil.
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I'm probably going to be spared this round, if my MRI is good in september I won't have to get it done
 
I'm feeling a bit bad right now, a tad guilty and unsure of my feelings and whether or not I am projecting feelings onto a wild animal that isn't capable of having emotions?

Last year a groundhog took residence in our backyard, as some of you may know. We thought it was a he but after a litter of 2 babies was born this spring, we realized our error. She (Stewie) has become an outdoor pet, quite tame, although we don't actually ever touch her. She comes when she is called and is also known to come to the slider back door and "knock" when she is hungry. She loves peanut butter sandwiches and bananas, and lately even peanuts in the shells (she learned from watching the squirrels).

In late spring she brought her two babies up to the back deck and they shared a few meals (only a few). They were so little and so cute. But after she weaned them and kicked them out of her den, they went out front to our vegetable garden and decimated some of our lettuce. We have two front decks, one by our son's door and one in front of ours, and the babies were staying under the front porch decks, way too close to our vegetable garden! We decided we didn't want them around and put some pepper flakes, ammonia, and other deterrents under the deck until they moved into the backyard again. We kept hoping that they would move on.

Well one of the baby groundhogs has moved on (maybe to the park across the street) and the other baby has taken up residence under the woodpile out in our backyard. She/he hasn't been in the front near the veggie garden in a few months. We have an abundance of green grass and other natural greens that groundhogs love in our expansive backyard, but Stewie, the mom, still comes up for her peanut butter sandwiches and bananas nearly daily. Well the baby has been trying to do the same since early summer, and I really don't want it around, so I continuously chase it off when it tries to come up and share food with his/her mama.

Out in the very back part of our yard, we have a shade garden (we have a large canopy of very old trees around our yard) and there is a border of very large stones surrounding the shade garden. My husband put out a big decorative concrete frog that's painted yellow which is perched upon one of the stones. I have noticed that baby groundhog sometimes sits very closely next to it during the day, as if for companionship or protection. Well yesterday, mama Stewie came up for her sandwich and banana, and baby came and tried to get onto the deck for a bite. I chased him/her off. Mama seems happy about that and is pretty much unwilling to share. The baby scurried down to the rock border and sat next to the frog, and then laid down in a dejected fashion with its paws out front of him/her and head resting on its paws. It looked so sad. It really made me feel bad, like she/he felt rejected?

Okay so she/he obviously isn't starving to death and might miss her brother/sister, and maybe I am making him/her feel ostracized because its mama has no familial instincts apparently above "hey, I birthed you and nursed you now figure it out on your own"...or am I just projecting these feelings onto a wild animal who is just "hey I am hungry and that banana smells good"?

HAHAHA I dunno. I still feel guilty though. And at this point, it's apparent that baby isn't moving on, and since she/he isn't ravaging the garden out front and is behaving by staying in the backyard, maybe I should just let him/her eat a few peanut butter sandwiches and bananas here and there. And if it has feelings of loneliness, maybe a little food might make it feel happier.

Am I crazy to think this wild animal has evolved emotions?
 
JAS_OH1 said:
I'm feeling a bit bad right now, a tad guilty and unsure of my feelings and whether or not I am projecting feelings onto a wild animal that isn't capable of having emotions?

Last year a groundhog took residence in our backyard, as some of you may know. We thought it was a he but after a litter of 2 babies was born this spring, we realized our error. She (Stewie) has become an outdoor pet, quite tame, although we don't actually ever touch her. She comes when she is called and is also known to come to the slider back door and "knock" when she is hungry. She loves peanut butter sandwiches and bananas, and lately even peanuts in the shells (she learned from watching the squirrels).

In late spring she brought her two babies up to the back deck and they shared a few meals (only a few). They were so little and so cute. But after she weaned them and kicked them out of her den, they went out front to our vegetable garden and decimated some of our lettuce. We have two front decks, one by our son's door and one in front of ours, and the babies were staying under the front porch decks, way too close to our vegetable garden! We decided we didn't want them around and put some pepper flakes, ammonia, and other deterrents under the deck until they moved into the backyard again. We kept hoping that they would move on.

Well one of the baby groundhogs has moved on (maybe to the park across the street) and the other baby has taken up residence under the woodpile out in our backyard. She/he hasn't been in the front near the veggie garden in a few months. We have an abundance of green grass and other natural greens that groundhogs love in our expansive backyard, but Stewie, the mom, still comes up for her peanut butter sandwiches and bananas nearly daily. Well the baby has been trying to do the same since early summer, and I really don't want it around, so I continuously chase it off when it tries to come up and share food with his/her mama.

Out in the very back part of our yard, we have a shade garden (we have a large canopy of very old trees around our yard) and there is a border of very large stones surrounding the shade garden. My husband put out a big decorative concrete frog that's painted yellow which is perched upon one of the stones. I have noticed that baby groundhog sometimes sits very closely next to it during the day, as if for companionship or protection. Well yesterday, mama Stewie came up for her sandwich and banana, and baby came and tried to get onto the deck for a bite. I chased him/her off. Mama seems happy about that and is pretty much unwilling to share. The baby scurried down to the rock border and sat next to the frog, and then laid down in a dejected fashion with its paws out front of him/her and head resting on its paws. It looked so sad. It really made me feel bad, like she/he felt rejected?

Okay so she/he obviously isn't starving to death and might miss her brother/sister, and maybe I am making him/her feel ostracized because its mama has no familial instincts apparently above "hey, I birthed you and nursed you now figure it out on your own"...or am I just projecting these feelings onto a wild animal who is just "hey I am hungry and that banana smells good"?

HAHAHA I dunno. I still feel guilty though. And at this point, it's apparent that baby isn't moving on, and since she/he isn't ravaging the garden out front and is behaving by staying in the backyard, maybe I should just let him/her eat a few peanut butter sandwiches and bananas here and there. And if it has feelings of loneliness, maybe a little food might make it feel happier.

Am I crazy to think this wild animal has evolved emotions?
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TLDR In short feeding wild animals isn’t a great idea.

I don’t want to come across as harsh but I have experience of this type of thing that maybe food for thought.
I’m bothering to type this because I think perhaps you have an inkling where you’re heading and won’t take what’s said as criticism. I type it from caring motives.

You are providing food security for a wild animal of breeding age. If you continue to feed a breeding animal then this is just your first litter and you’re in for more of the same.

The kindest thing to do if you don’t want to spend the years to come with a groundhog problem is not feed them, including Stewie. If you can’t manage that then brace yourself for more of the same.
It will simply stress you and her babies out.

Feeding wild animals interrupts their natural behaviours. They will alway gravitate to a potential easy food source. They have survived for thousands of years without a free supply of calorie dense human food.
An overweight wild animal is at risk from disease and illness and certainly has an increase risk from predators.

We had an old lady at the top of the road who likes to feed “her fox”. It started as one fox and ballooned to a fox problem on the farm.
Whilst I understand her desire and joy at connecting with nature and her lack of knowledge in the area it still resulted in unbalancing the natural order.
The consequence of her input was a farm and surrounding houses overrun with foxes. The balance nature has in place becomes distorted - pushing out roe deer, hares, rabbits and other wild animals that before coexisted in the same space.

This leads to the necessary and truly brutal rebalancing that is a cull. It has to happen before it’s too late for the rest of the surrounding wildlife and everybody hates it.

The old lady doesn’t have to be part of or witness the killing of foxes, all she knows is she’s only been feeding her foxes so that’s ok.

Hunger emboldens animals to take risks they wouldn’t normally. If a fox is hunting in daylight hours it’s starving, this is when doors and windows are left open and food smells are irresistible. Once they invade your home a level has been reached where another mass cull has to happen.

That little old lady never had to face pulling down a very large log pile a shooting dozens of fox cubs. If she did she might have stopped feeding the foxes. Instead she unwittingly supported a breeding system that caused many foxes destruction and the loss of other native species.

She wouldn’t listen to reason so it went on for years and years.
Then she died. It took even more years but eventually the fox numbers returned to their normal level the roe deer hares rabbits and bird life returned, the ecosystem is back in balance.

Don’t get me wrong in a very hard winter leaving out a very small amount of the food they would naturally eat (eg seeds for birds) is the difference between them surviving or not but a few nuts and seeds once in a blue moon when their natural food sources are cut off is a good intervention, daily feeding calorie dense foods not so much!

I have a suspicion you’ve figured most of this out and are struggling with the emotions involved. Perhaps consider what’s kindest for all involved in the long run.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
TLDR In short feeding wild animals isn’t a great idea.

I don’t want to come across as harsh but I have experience of this type of thing that maybe food for thought.
I’m bothering to type this because I think perhaps you have an inkling where you’re heading and won’t take what’s said as criticism. I type it from caring motives.

You are providing food security for a wild animal of breeding age. If you continue to feed a breeding animal then this is just your first litter and you’re in for more of the same.

The kindest thing to do if you don’t want to spend the years to come with a groundhog problem is not feed them, including Stewie. If you can’t manage that then brace yourself for more of the same.
It will simply stress you and her babies out.

Feeding wild animals interrupts their natural behaviours. They will alway gravitate to a potential easy food source. They have survived for thousands of years without a free supply of calorie dense human food.
An overweight wild animal is at risk from disease and illness and certainly has an increase risk from predators.

We had an old lady at the top of the road who likes to feed “her fox”. It started as one fox and ballooned to a fox problem on the farm.
Whilst I understand her desire and joy at connecting with nature and her lack of knowledge in the area it still resulted in unbalancing the natural order.
The consequence of her input was a farm and surrounding houses overrun with foxes. The balance nature has in place becomes distorted - pushing out roe deer, hares, rabbits and other wild animals that before coexisted in the same space.

This leads to the necessary and truly brutal rebalancing that is a cull. It has to happen before it’s too late for the rest of the surrounding wildlife and everybody hates it.

The old lady doesn’t have to be part of or witness the killing of foxes, all she knows is she’s only been feeding her foxes so that’s ok.

Hunger emboldens animals to take risks they wouldn’t normally. If a fox is hunting in daylight hours it’s starving, this is when doors and windows are left open and food smells are irresistible. Once they invade your home a level has been reached where another mass cull has to happen.

That little old lady never had to face pulling down a very large log pile a shooting dozens of fox cubs. If she did she might have stopped feeding the foxes. Instead she unwittingly supported a breeding system that caused many foxes destruction and the loss of other native species.

She wouldn’t listen to reason so it went on for years and years.
Then she died. It took even more years but eventually the fox numbers returned to their normal level the roe deer hares rabbits and bird life returned, the ecosystem is back in balance.

Don’t get me wrong in a very hard winter leaving out a very small amount of the food they would naturally eat (eg seeds for birds) is the difference between them surviving or not but a few nuts and seeds once in a blue moon when their natural food sources are cut off is a good intervention, daily feeding calorie dense foods not so much!

I have a suspicion you’ve figured most of this out and are struggling with the emotions involved. Perhaps consider what’s kindest for all involved in the long run.
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Yeah, I agree with much of what you are saying. My rodents are prey and not predators though. We have foxes, coyotes, and other wildlife in our yard pretty regularly (we Iive across from a sprawling forested park). Apparently groundhogs have a lifespan of about 3-4 years. We have a lot of red-tailed hawks around here as well who feed on the youngsters so they never get too abundant, same with chipmunks and squirrels. Animals like that don't last long around here. I do appreciate your advice though! If they get our of hand, which is unlikely, we'll get Timmy (my nephew) to come trap and move them for us.
 
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JAS_OH1 said:
Yeah, I agree with much of what you are saying. My rodents are prey and not predators though. We have foxes, coyotes, and other wildlife in our yard pretty regularly (we Iive across from a sprawling forested park). Apparently groundhogs have a lifespan of about 3-4 years. We have a lot of red-tailed hawks around here as well who feed on the youngsters so they never get too abundant, same with chipmunks and squirrels. Animals like that don't last long around here. I do appreciate your advice though! If they get our of hand, which is unlikely, we'll get Timmy (my nephew) to come trap and move them for us.
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Not being a predator doesn’t mean an overpopulation won’t push out other wildlife, limited food supplies mean weaker species suffer. More groundhogs (a food source in themselves) the more predators you’ll get. My understanding is the lifespan is three to four years in the wild. A cared for animal can last many year longer.
Supported breeding still causes imbalance.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Not being a predator doesn’t mean an overpopulation won’t push out other wildlife, limited food supplies mean weaker species suffer. More groundhogs (a food source in themselves) the more predators you’ll get. My understanding is the lifespan is three to four years in the wild. A cared for animal can last many year longer.
Supported breeding still causes imbalance.
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I honestly don't think we are in danger of overpopulation here. I'm not feeding an army of groundhogs and it's not going to come to that. They don't reach breeding age until 2 years old, only breed once a year after hibernation, and have a short lifespan of 3-4 years. I doubt seriously that my feedng one is going to cause an imbalance in the population of groundhogs and increase the number of predators, though hawks do have to eat too.

I'd be more concerned about the number of feral cats in the city and overcrowding of the animal shelters than a couple of groundhogs out here in the burbs (we are south of Akron in a less populous part of the county).

There is plenty growing around here for her to eat even without a few bananas and sandwiches. We have lush grass and fruit trees, and our neighbors do too. Stewie wouldn't starve without me.
 
Mod comment: No more on the subject of feeding wildlife, please. Let’s move on to something else. Thanks.
 
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