https://www.terrain.org/2021/nonfiction/cats-dogs-who-eat-cats-dogs/

https://longform.org/posts/the-cats-and-dogs-who-eat-cats-and-dogs

“Last summer, Kiwi the house cat, a one-year-old, all-black, adventurous female, made the unfortunate decision of crossing the road. An inside-outside feline, Kiwi probably knew to look both ways over the asphalt because she made it intact to the other side, as she had many times before in suburban Denton, Texas.

Denton is a haven for professors and librarians, a college oasis just north of the ever-sprawling Dallas metroplex. Kiwi’s neighborhood is the kind where you wouldn’t blink twice at a backyard chicken coop. Every lawn sprouts trees, canopies covering street lengths. A creek runs through it. The waterway abuts neglected fences, which in turn shield dilapidated sheds and woodpiles. Meanwhile, rodents, ducks, rabbits, and house pets run amok. If this doesn’t sound like a perfect wilderness for a carnivore, it should.…“

https://electricliterature.com/the-most-dangerous-movie-ever-made-eec6bd1b16a0

“Roar, directed by Noel Marshall and released in 1981, is widely regarded as the most dangerous film ever made. Upwards of 120 cast and crew members may have suffered injury (though the usual figure cited is 70). Most of them were mauled by a motley cast of predators left uninhibited on set.

The movie follows a wildlife biologist in Kenya, who lives in a two-story house filled with seven species of wild cats. His estranged wife and three children join him, but he arrives tardy at the airport. Missing him, the family buses to the house, and are surprised to find it packed with predators; they are terrorized until the biologist returns. The movie is bookended by Humane Society messages announcing no cats were harmed in the production. No such claim is made about the crew.”

http://proximitymagazine.org/project/18-peters/

https://www.theawl.com/2017/08/kudzu-the-miracle-vine/

"At the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Alexander Graham Bell revealed his telephone to the world. The Sholes and Glidden company displayed the first Remington typewriter, Heinz launched its ketchup, and Charles Elmer Hires introduced Root Beer. There were over two hundred structures housing 30,000 exhibitions including elephant-sized cannons, a 1,400-horsepower steam engine, and the right arm of the Statue of Liberty. But according to the journal American History, the exhibit that drew the most “ooohs” from the cosmopolitan crowd of ten million was a garden display of a fast-growing Japanese vine. With leaves the width and shape of a human palm, the evergreen produced conical clusters of spring flowers that were the color of plums and smelled like red wine. As of today, kudzu has spread to 32 states and Canada.

http://therumpus.net/2016/08/wildlife-of-unknown-status/

"Not long ago, the largest cat in Eastern America, the Florida panther, was categorized as “wildlife of unknown status” by ecologists, a label given to ivory-billed woodpeckers, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness monster. Until the 1980s, the Florida panther was presumed extinct or myth, reported by weary commuters and conspiracy theorists. Tracking one, when scientists realized they existed, required groups of men and dogs reading paw prints, following scent, riding in handmade amphibious jeeps, traversing cottonmouth-filled swamps, and then finally treeing a panther for days.

And the cats could jump tree-to-tree."

http://therumpus.net/2016/01/the-limbic-system-roundup/

"There’s another theory that the fear is simply handed down, like DNA, an archaic notion of defending turf, an accumulation of generations. It’s something our ancestors had control over on the chaotic plains, where wind, drought, fires, tornadoes, hail, and surprise visits from frost had little to halt them. A struggling human is often bent upon the little scratch of power he or she has."

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20150131-old-mode-of-travel-back-in-vogue.ece

"The remnants of the streetcar line bear witness to the gilded age of rail — a time before fast cars and mass transportation. Now, with changing attitudes toward automobiles, gridlocked highways and the rebirth of urban centers, trains are making a comeback. More people such as Colonna are riding the rails again, helping make North Texas an epicenter of the nation’s rail renaissance."

http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-has-a-rat-problem-and-it-may-be-getting-worse-7321281

"Rats have evolved to depend on us. They are highly intelligent and acrobatic, with noses capable of snuffing out traces of poison down to 1 part per million. They have sex up to 20 times a day (so if you're reading this in or around Dallas, chances are you're not far from rats going at it, making more)."

http://www.themayborn.com/article/american-writer

"In his pursuit of story, Mooney spent two years hounding Glenn Beck’s publicist for an interview with the ultra-conservative TV and radio personality, who is famously shy about interviews. He followed former Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington to his home in New Orleans just to knock on his door and have a few words with him, something the Rangers head of communications already had forbidden. Another source, a victim of rape, torture and kidnapping, refused to talk to any other reporter after the trial had ended, but she caved after Mooney drove to her country home and left her Belgian chocolates, purple flowers and a letter."