I got nothin'!!!

I can scarcely remember a day when there has been less inspiration around Andy's Place. So, I got nothin'!

Nah...really I do have some junk...even though it will not be interesting to all 13 of y'all that visit. Consider y'all'self warned!

For some odd reason, a memory from High School came back to me this morning. In the summer before my Senior year, I attended Louisiana "Boy's State." I will not go into all the boring details of what "Boy's State" is...but I was housed in a dorm room on the LSU-Baton Rouge campus with two other high school boys. One was a coonass boy from Crowley, and the other was a black guy from Leesville.

As we were getting to know each other on the first evening, we were talking about our high schools, girls, the work ahead of us, our football teams...and our high school mascots.

The coonass boy from Crowley (home of stinkin' Edwin Edwards) said that his school teams were called "The Gentlemen." I knew all about that, because Centenary College just across the river from me in Shreveport has the "Gent" as a mascot...and the girl teams play under the term of "Ladies." Cute, no?

So, I proudly told my roomies that our Bossier High teams are the "BearKats!" That's BearKat, with a K...not a C, like stinkin' Cincinnati. So, this black kid (the one from Leesville) asked me, "What is a BearKat?" And I told him it's not a real animal. It's kinda like a Bobcat, but some time way back, the folks in Bossier thought the "K" made it different from other "Bearcat" football teams. Well, lemme show you...here's our logo:

Scary, huh? Dang Right!

So, then it came time for the black guy from Leesville, and he proudly told us that his Leesville High School mascot was the "Wampus Cat!"

Now, I had never heard of a "Wampus Cat." And (obviously) the coonass from Crowley had not either. So, the coonass boy asked, "Whad in da' mordal' hell is a Wampus Cat?" I sat on my chair waiting for the black fellow to answer.

He sat there a long time before he said anything. I knew he didn't know what a Wampus Cat was by the look on his face.

Finally, he said, "Well, it sho' ain't no Gentleman...and it ain't something thought up by Bossier folks that can't spell 'cat.' A Wampus Cat is BAD!"

So, with that memory prodding me this morning, I decided to find out about Wampus Cats. It might surprise you to know that: (according to Wikedpeepee:)

The Wampus cat is a legendary creature in Cherokee mythology. This is also a monster of the fearsome critters variety, used by the lumberjack community of the United States. According to the tale, a Native American woman disguised herself in the skin of a mountain lion to spy on the men of the tribe as they sat around the campfire and told sacred stories on a hunting trip. When the woman was discovered, the tribe's medicine man punished her by transforming her into a half-woman, half-cat, who supposedly still haunts the forests of East Tennessee.

Another legend of the Wampus cat comes from the eastern part of Alabama. Supposedly, a secret program was carried out by the government in the 1940s to create an agile, fierce message carrier to be used on the European front during World War II, much like passenger pigeons were used in World War I. This program was based near Cheaha Mountain in the Talladega Forest, an area that was and remains very sparsely settled. The creature was part Mountain Lion and part Gray Wolf. However, several male and female specimens of the newly created species escaped, and were never captured. Sightings of these hybrid creatures have been reported in the area ever since, with (supposed) sightings occurring as far south as the Everglades and as far north as the Great Smoky Mountains. They have also been blamed for breaking into chicken coops, mauling livestock, and even stalking humans. Several instances have been recorded of actual attacks, but most are believed to have been mountain lion attacks.

I was also surprised to find out that Leesville High students are not the only Wampus Cats.

• Atoka High School, Atoka, Oklahoma
• Clark Fork Junior/Senior High School, Clark Fork, Idaho
• Conway High School, Conway, Arkansas
• Itasca High School, Itasca, Texas
• Leesville High School, Leesville, Louisiana
• Pollock Elementary School, Pollock, Louisiana

In fact, there is an actual 6-legged Wampus Cat on the campus at Conway High, in Conway stinkin' Arkansas.

See..."Four to run with the speed of light, and two to fight with all its might."

So, you learned something today, didn't ya'?

Also, I've got some other stuff. Here's a picture of a dog with a stinkin' cat that Walt sent me. It's cute.


And, here's a picture of a dog with a chick...pretty cute, too, huh?


And, while we're talking chickens, this is a picture of one of my brother-in-law's roosters. He's a city boy that moved back to, and is reclaiming the old family farm in Ozark, stinkin' Arkansas. This is a handsome rooster. The Mrs. wanted me to e-mail it to Patrick Conlon, but I just decided to put it up here. If he suffers through the previous crap, he'll see it. If not...well, he's seen a rooster before.


As I said, my brother-in-law is a city boy, and "farming" is something that he's learning as he goes. I don't think he's really figured it all out yet. He sent this picture to The Mrs., and asked her, "what variety of chicken is this?"



Nyuk! Actually, he was joshin'. He's got 6 tom turkeys, and he's named them all. Ya' wanna guess what he named them? Yep! All of his toms are named "Andy." I love my brother-in-law.

And oh yeah...I got one more thing.

Another crapping punkin...

But this one looks like he needs some prunes, or something.

Like I said, "I. GOT. NOTHIN'!!!