They're coming, and they might just be smarter than we give them credit for.
Armadillos are on the march. Word on the street is that armadillos have started invading southern Illinois. The word on the street is supported by increasing numbers of flat armadillos on the street.
Red squirrels are smarter than the average spruce. The squirrels' sole source of nourishment (other than the contents of every supposedly squirrel-proof bird feeder ever made) is the seeds of the spruce tree. The trees try to dodge this by producing a bumper crop of seeds at random intervals. We now see that the squirrels, crafty rodents that they are, have figured out when the bumper crop of seeds are coming, even before the cones set, and produce a bumper crop of squirrels to match.
Here at the Rookery, we have our own non-human intelligence problem. Contrary to what some might expect, it is not our gadgets achieving sentience. We suspect Sonja, the penguin cat, may have figured out the doorknob principle. She gets "me time" in a closed room a couple of times a day, since she adamantly refuses to do her business if there is a chance of another cat approaching. A few times when I have been in there with her, I have seen her get up on her hind legs and try to bat at the doorknob when she is ready to rejoin the world. Twice now when I was not in with her, I have heard unusual noises from inside, consistent with the sounds one would expect from an eight-pound cat leaping up and trying to grab the lever-style doorknob. If she ever figures out targeting and how to pull, the humans of the house are up a creek and paddle-free.
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