AMBER LOVE 04-JAN-2021 This work is supported by the generous backers who adore my cat stories at Patreon.com/amberunmasked and they also get first access to what’s happening with my books and podcast.
HAPPY 2021? Maybe.
I guess we’ll have to see. I recall thinking it couldn’t get worse than 2016 when David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Vanity, Harper Lee, Garry Shandling, Muhammad Ali, Noel Neill, Garry Marshall, Kenny Baker, Bill Nunn, Florence Henderson, Ron Glass, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, and William Christopher all died in that one year! PLUS THE ELECTION! Then we had 2020. *Fingers crossed for this year. Not sure we stand a chance.*
Where We Left Off:
Oliver was essential in locating a missing lawn mower part and helping the Grumpy Old Man repair it. Meanwhile Gus was working hard trying to track down more rodent squatters.
The Last House on the Right:
I’m not sure why I thought more people would be interested in the bone collection at the Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency. The videos of what I went through cleaning that one Jersey devil-deer carcass only have 7-15 views. There’s one channel that shows how to take off the fur and flesh and then clean bones and that guy gets over two million views per episode with 280k subscribers!
Of the few people who have paid any attention to my posts about the dead things collection, one is our local Tai Chi and Qi-gong teacher, Chiman-Stan. He lives across the woods from us near a tiny pond at the end of road that is no more than a path. One day, I got a surprising email from Stan asking if I’d like to have a skull he has. Of course I said yes! We made arrangements to meet at his place on a weekend when the Butler could be here.
Since that was a pleasant weather day, we took Gus and Oliver out for patrols first. Then I packed Gus into the mobile feline transport unit — the backpack. Gus has used his backpack only a few times. During this excursion, having the Butler there to keep an eye from the rear was a big help. Gus was able to be tethered to the short leash on the inside of the backpack so that his rooftop screen could be opened once we got off the street and onto the trail.
Stan’s shed and house are chocolate brown wood. Inside the shed was so neatly organized and clean that I had to comment how it looked like it should be in magazines. That’s not hyperbole. It was impressive — basically the exact opposite of our enormous hangar of hoarding. The shed was large enough to fit a few different pieces of ride-on equipment. Hand tools hung on the walls. It smelled like cold dirt with a hint of mechanic.
The skull is an antler-bearing specimen, presumably male. The skin did not get eaten away nor decompose. It turned to a hard leather which still spots of fur and fossilized remains of connective tissue. I’m not sure how it was preserved to end up like this. Quite fascinating. Stan then presented us with a matching lower leg which still had its fur and hoof in tact. I couldn’t wait to get the artifacts back to the offices so that we could run some tests to determine the origins. It was time to head back home after we posed for some fun photos with traveling Gus and a skull.
Stan and his wife are the ones who maintain the trails over there which has to be a substantial undertaking. It was in the best condition I’ve ever seen it. It was a mostly level walk too. Eventually we reached the one end where there were small wooden bridges and stairs to lead us up to the next small road that has far too many large trucks driving down it because GPS systems tell them “it’s shorter,” but they can barely fit. That’s the one spot where’s there’s a hill and we had to squish into the brush at the side of the road every time a truck needed to come through. The hill was challenging and good cardio which I despised.
Once home, I left the package on the table for Oliver to inspect first. We didn’t get to run through our tests until days later. bleep-boop-tap-tap-tap and we had results. The skull and leg are Jersey devil-deer of the antler but wingless breed. This hybrid is the second most commonly found Jersey demon in our area.
You can learn the martials arts Stan teaches through his YouTube channel which has short demonstrations and full length classes.
Case Findings:
We received two gifts from a friend and nature itself: high quality artifacts proving the existence of the Jersey demon hybrid called the Jersey devil-deer.
Case Status: Closed
