The bear thread got me to thinking about a current situation where I work. I work at a huge chemical plant in the Texas panhandle. It is a fenced in compound 1 square mile in size. There are/were 21 units/areas. Imagine an oil refinery with more towers. You know the tall skinny things anywhere from 30-150 feet tall. This plants primary product was acetic acid. From that there were 28 or so other products sold. Mostly solvents of one sort or another. Sh-t that would burn to the bone or paralyse your lungs if you breathed it. Nasty dangerous stuff. But hey they've paid great. Cut to the chase.
About a month ago a Mountain Lion was spotted on the perimeter of the plant. Yea right everyone says. A couple of weeks later in the plant shooting across a road full tilt boogie. Another sketchy sighting by a dubious character. Then this week 2 guys are standing outside one of the control rooms and spot the cat calmly walking across the road between 2 units bigger than Dallas. Well, bigger than a big German Shepard.
All of the units except 2 have been shut down. so a place that was once so loud that you had to wear hearing protection or it would actually hurt your ears is deathly silent. All of the units that have as many as 100 electric or steam driven turbine pumps you can hear a pin drop in. This cat has made this place his new home. These critters are not a natural panhandle of Texas critter. Maybe 100+ years ago.
So everyone is getting spooked. At least the ones of us left. This place used to have 500 people working here. There are now 40. At night on shift there are only 3 of us. We are supposed to make rounds through all of the units to check for terrorists I guess. One of my coworkers takes his job seriously. He actually does go through the units. He has been feeding some feral cats in 2 of those units. In one the other night he put cat food in a pie plate. It would usually take 3-4 days for the cats to eat it. That night he came back through on his rounds and it was empty. So now he knows he's feeding the cat. The real big one.
Stay tuned if I don't post in the next week you know that sumbich got me.
