Re: EV Wildlife/animal stories

["Mitchell Oates" <mitchoates@prodigy.net>]

     Yep, that was me. The cat's name is Ralph, and thankfully he 
abandoned ship when I turned on the cooling pump and muffin fans 
for the liquid cooling setup on my controller. I knew of the feline's 
fondness for vehicles, and took pains when redoing the truck to 
ensure that he wouldn't inadvertently check the pack's state of 
charge when performing his duties as vehicle inspector. There is 
something to be said for not having an ENTIRELY silent EV.
     Now, old Ralph contents himself with sitting on the black 
tonneau bed cover over that nice large bank of 24 warm batteries, 
and has learned that when I disconnect the charger cable it's time 
to find another perch. The only time I've taken issue with this 
behavior is one night when he decided it was too much trouble to 
climb down and find a clump of bushes to serve as a restroom, 
and, well....., I'll leave that one to your imagination.
     We also have another cat, a black and white bob-tailed Manx 
named Bomber (named for the noxious gaseous aftereffects of 
whatever he eats) that has appointed himself vehicle maintenance 
supervisor. Whenever I go out to plug it in at night after returning 
from work, or unplugging it and refilling the A/C ice chest in the 
afternoon before leaving for work, he is constantly at my heels to 
ensure that all work is performed to specification. When plugging in 
the power cord to the charger in the bed, he hops up into the bed 
and checks out everything there, thens hops out and trys to crawl 
up my leg as if to get my attention and say "OK boss, turn on the 
juice". When I open the driver's door and sit down for a few minutes 
to check the e-meter and see that everything is working properly, 
he hops up into the cab, checks out everything inside, then comes 
over and sits down on my lap with a loud purr, saying "Everything's 
fine here, let's call it a night". When I'm done and get out, ready to 
close the door, I don't have to say a word, he hops down and 
saunters off into the night, having once again fulfilled his duties.
     I swear, one of these nights I fully expect to get woken up by 
this cat clawing at the window, meowing and raising all manner of 
hell, telling me to get my lazy butt out of bed because the charger 
shut off for some reason and I need to go reset it. At least none of 
these cats are telling me how to drive (not yet, anyway).
     I'm also the one that came across the black panther by the side 
of the road one night coming home from work. As a follow up, there 
were two or three other reports over the next couple of weeks of 
other people sighting this beast in the area. Additionally, I found 
out a month later than another gentleman that also works at 
Freightliner had spotted the beast on the same night on the same 
stretch of road that I did, but didn't tell anyone at first figuring they 
would doubt his sanity or what he actually had in his coffee mug.

                                                    Mitch Oates