Barmy Blue's Bland Blog

There have been and probably still are people who believe that the full moon makes people go crazy, or brings all the crazy people out or that strange and mysterious things will happen during a full moon. I'm told that this is how the word lunatic was derived. Feel free to correct me on that if I'm wrong. Currently there is no scientific evidence to support these beliefs. The most likely origin of these beliefs is that it was easier to see at night during a full moon, before the invention of the street lamp and electric lights in general, so any dastardly deeds you had planned would be easier to do, although it would also be easier to get caught without the shroud of complete darkness.

I completely agree with this. The gravitational pull of the moon may affect the oceans and various plants and corals and such may bloom or reproduce by the full moon light. But I don't believe it has mystical powers over human nature. It would be interesting if it did but unnecessary.

Tonight was a full moon. I've been looking forward to it for a month.....well a lunar month that is.

Now a little side track if you'll indulge me.

You know how my last blogs where about the things I saw in the night sky and how amazed I was to be seeing the moon and all through my scope?

Well, a couple of days before the full moon last month it was cloudy but I still held out a little hope. On the night of the full moon it was cloudy. I was so peeved because there was supposed to be a kind of partial eclipse where the moon would just get oddly shadowy for a little while, not like a full eclipse but still something cool. But it was cloudy and when I did see a little of the moon it was low down behind the houses.

It's been low and cloudy since. And because it's getting lighter earlier it's daylight before the moon can reach my window. It's quite a poor time for stargazing in general, for me at least. Even Ursa Major is getting hard to see. It's light for longer and gets lighter earlier, that's just the way it is. I find that winter is the best time to see bright clear skies....at night.....obviously summer is better for daytime.

So. Even if I can't use my scope I'm still thrilled to see a full moon with the naked eye. Tonight I got lucky. It was low behind the houses and there were few places I could see it but tonight I got to see a huge full moon. It looks bigger when it's rising. I'd love to get a look at it with my scope at that time but any full moon would be nice.

It was a little hazy but I got to see the whole thing while walking the dog. On our walk we encountered a dog that had a collar but no lead and was pulled behind it's owner's car as we approached, a cat hiding in a garden and a fox that ran across the road, changed it's mind and ran back into our garden.

When we got in Yui was pretty normal. But then she got confused because I asked mum to come out and look at the full moon. Since I was still ready and Yuki would get confused if I didn't, I took Yuki back out with us. We only went to the end of the street and back.

Once we got back in Yui settled down. But shortly after she started to get agitated. Now when this happens she usually wants to poo, quite badly but she doesn't like to do it with me. She's very picky about where she'll do it unless she's absolutely desperate. Also, she did this last week twice. We concluded that it was the cheese sauce on the pasta we had, she likes the sauce. The thing is, she'll run around and jump but when you take her out, if the conditions aren't right, she won't poop. So we usually leave her for a while, to see if she really does need to go and if she does she'll be more inclined to do it quickly.

So she ran around eagerly. In out in out of the living room and half way up the stairs and jumping at the door. Then she calmed down. Maybe the fox had come back and she could smell it outside. Then she got agitated again and I became aware of loud barking outside. Was it Baz (our neighbour's Alsatian? He's lovely and he barks out of the window but he's pretty friendly). Funnily enough when she got him from a rescue place they said he doesn't bark but when she brought him home he started barking. I like to think that he's trying to protect her but she thinks he just wants attention from passersby.

We both agreed that it wasn't Baz barking. Too loud and a different bark. I had a look outside. Maybe someone had a dog in the street. Couldn't see anything. Mum pointed out how much higher the moon had gotten and we looked at that a little. Then I saw faint movement in a car across the road. It was dark so pretty hard to see but I was pretty sure there was someone in the car. Then I saw a tail. then here and there bits of a dog. I pointed it out to mum but she couldn't see until the dog came into view more clearly.

There was a dog outside with no collar, lead or visible owner. He could've belonged to the guy in the car but why would you be scared of your own dog? Unless you haven't been treating it properly. I shut Yui in and poked my head outside to see if there was an owner. I didn't go out far enough to see anyone but I was aware of people across the road leaning out of an upstairs window and heard someone talking about it, saying that it didn't have a collar, they didn't know who it belonged to and they'd called the police.

Now it was probably silly but I decided to go outside. I felt kind of sorry for this dog and, having my own dog I felt a little overconfident. I changed into my boots and got the gardening gloves in case it was aggressive. Mum was coming out with me. I got a dog treat in hopes of bribing it and gave one to Yui to try and calm her down because she was running around.

Mum went out first and I followed. I gave her the treat but she didn't want the gloves.

It was quite a shiny looking black and white dog with quite a waggy tail. It was male but with no visible balls which was a bonus. If the owners had the sense to neuter the dog then it should be a little less hostile, and maybe from a reasonably responsible owner......although what kind of *** would leave the poor thing in the street alone? Really.

He barked and growled a little and mum was brave enough to try and gently approach him but I got a little scared when he came towards me and I hadn't shut the front door so he could probably smell Yuki locked up in the living room. I backed up to the front door and shut it properly, then just watched from there. I didn't want to spook it. Mum couldn't get near it and a police van arrived, the man got out of the car and mum pointed out that it was sat in a garden three doors down from us, sat at the front door.

I'd say it's safe to assume that's his home. We've both heard a dog barking in there but never seen it around or out for walks. It barks from the garden a lot and sometimes from inside. Mum thinks that the family are renting that house and their landlord doesn't want dogs there, so they've been hiding him.....very poorly, because we know he's there from the barking. She tells me that the lights in that house went out as she got outside and figured they were hiding....very poorly.....so as not to get involved. She gave the police the dog treat, just in case, and came back inside with me.

Well, we'd only get in the way with the police there. She told me the police weren't exactly sure what to do either. We took a while to settle down, I turned out the lights so we wouldn't be seen looking, I don't like seeming like a nosey neighbour, before looking out again, just in time to see the police leave. I don't think they had time to get out and do anything in that time but maybe they did. The barking had stopped and the dog didn't run back into the street . Maybe his owners grew a pair and let him back in.

I'm sorry but anyone who hides in their house and leaves their dog out in the street all alone, especially when someone, who seems to be afraid of dogs is pinned in his car by said dog, deserves to be shot. Now that I've had time to think about it those barks and little growls didn't sound aggressive at all. I think he was scared.

I'm still baffled as to how he got out in the first place. He could only have come from the front door. To come out from the back garden he would've had to go through every other garden into mine and go out through the side or do the same thing and come out at the other end of the street, and all of the gardens are individually fenced.

So how could he get out of the front door without a collar without anyone noticing him?

And once they realised he was out why didn't they go and get him?

I'm not sure what his problem was with the guy in the car. Maybe there was no problem and the guy was just too scared to come out of his car. Or maybe he was waiting for a human to let him back into his house. He looked quite shiny and healthy so he seems to be receiving good care. So why did they leave him outside like that? If Yuki did that we'd run out after her no matter what.....unless we were incapacitated.

As someone who has a doggy and loves her doggy very much and tries to protect her doggy I really don't understand why he was left outside like that.

Now. The point of the title and all that moon stuff at the start?

Could this be lunatics at work?

Here I'm using the word lunatics to describe odd activity during the full moon, not odd or mentally ill people. Similar to how Kyoji explains Guilt-Na-Zan's transformation to his original body during the full moon as being due to the magical perfume he used having "lunatics" as a base note in Vampire Doll. Obscure reference but I wanted to put it in for fun.

Wow. Took a long time to write this. It's daylight now and quite bright daylight at that.

Bluebiird out.

Ah. Forgot to add. A little while after the police left I decided to take Yui out in case she really did need to poop. She didn't by the way. Mum came out with me just in case. No need to worry though. The dog was definitely gone. We got to have another good look at the moon. It was kind of fun.