Ogre Will Love This . . . .

So, apparently the skyscraper-dwelling tree-huggers who live along Lake Michigan in Chicago have their frilly underthings in a twist because the Chicago Fire Department made a decision not to send its scuba team into Lake Michigan (through ice, no less) to save . . . a coyote.

Yes, a coyote.

A scavenging predator. A dime a dozen. An animal that thrives and overpopulates even in urban areas. A furbearing predator that is legal both to hunt and trap in Illinois . . . . to the tune of 7,000 taken per year. The animal George "Mad Ogre" Hill used to finance a new pistol, because where he lives, there's a bounty on the damn things. One of the only animals in Illinois that can be taken legally with a centerfire rifle. These people would faint dead away if they saw what goes on out on the back 40 of the average farm in Illinois on the weekends.

They don't appear to be kidding, either. It seems they are actually angry that professional rescue/EMS workers made the decision not to risk human lives to save a game animal some of them probably shoot on the weekends. Hey, folks, I think turkeys and whitetails are beautiful, but if I saved one from drowning within a mile of the farm where I hunt, my good friend the landowner would think twice about letting me come back the next year. There's a reason he lets me hunt there for free, and it's at least partly based on controlling the numbers of animals he considers varmints.

This reminds me of a letter to the editor I saw in the Chicago Tribune years ago while I was visiting my in-laws (this was before they were my in-laws.) Wisconsin was considering creating a hunting season for mourning doves at the time. That proposal led a dingbat from Chicago to bleat loudly in consternation. She would never, ever, ever visit Wisconsin again. She would keep her money in Illinois; no state barbaric enough to allow rednecks to blast the bird of peace with shotguns would get another cent from her. They'd be sorry, that's what!

I actually did write a short letter to the editor of my own, pointing out that Illinois has had a legal dove season for as long as I can remember, and that the breasts of the poor little things were delicious rolled in pancake flour and pan-fried. At the end, just to be on the safe side, I pointed out that Chicago is located in Illinois. I don't know whether the Tribune published my rebuttal, but it put a smile on my face and that's all that counts in my little world.