Ireland & USA: Little Differences #4
Dead Animals
Most every day I walk in Kansas City, and my dog rolls in a dead snake. Thanks to Saint Patrick and his very thorough pest removal service, I’ve never had a dog do that in Ireland.
That you regularly see, there are about 200 species of bird in Ireland. In the US there are over 800. My dog has rolled in five hundred of them.
Being from Dublin, my cycle trips from home - even those greater than one hundred miles - keep you more acquainted with dead animals than living ones. I have slalomed around Ireland’s dead wildlife - mostly rodents, badgers, foxes, hares, pheasants, and the more common garden birds.
Aside from thousands of squirrels, rabbits and birds, my slalom of death in the American Heartland includes possums, armadillos, raccoons, turtles, chipmunks, cicadas, snakes, and skunks.
See Also:
• Why Did You Leave Ireland and Move to Kansas City?
• How Do You Find America?
• What impresses you most about the United States?
• 10 Things I Never Heard Before Moving to America
• USA & Ireland: Little Differences #3 - Robins
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
I have two basset hounds and a golden retriever. I know all about dogs rolling in, eating, and playing with live or dead animals.
One thing my wife and I noticed when we were in Ireland was the lack of billboards and business signs. We were actually depressed when we came home. They really screw up the aesthetics of the landscape.
Aaron
I-70 across Missouri is disgusting with its billboards yet immediately to the south and north is beautiful countryside you have to leave the Interstate to see.
Similarly in the city there are few uglier streets than Wornall between 75th and 85th, because of business signs.
It’s funny to think how the Western World mocked the Warsaw Pact countries for draping their cities in flags and banners of propaganda, almost oblivious to how they chose to decorate so many cities in the ‘free’ world.