Shutdown’s Winners

Someone wins in every bad situation. Global warming may very well turn Churchill, Ontario Manitoba into a global shipping hub. And there are going to be winners when the U.S government shuts down. Granted, the only winners seem to be wildlife usually thought of as pests.

I used to play golf once a week at a course just north of LAX. Green fees were quite reasonable after work, and you generally wouldn’t lose your balls in the middle of the fairway if you used the orange ones. But to my delight, I discovered that a vixen had made a den along the fairway of the fourth hole and she often came out at night to go looking for food for herself and her kits. I sure thought the fox was pretty to look at, and on some nights the cubs would come out to play and they were so damn cute I’d stop my swing just to adore them from afar before momma fox herded them back to the den by the water hazard.

Turns out, foxes do quite well in urban environments and if a golf course was a place where fox could thrive, then I’m pretty sure that for a fox, life on the lawn of the White House would be even better. As for the squirrels eating Michelle Obama’s tomatoes — well, soon enough there’s going to be deer and who’s going to shoot them, the Secret Service? Maybe they should just give the dog the run of the lawn in the meantime.