SinC went to the dogs

Our upstate SC Sisters in Crime meeting went to the dogs on Thursday evening. We had two K-9 officers and their dogs, Nemo and Nero, come visit us and demonstrate how the dogs are trained to attack and seek out drugs. Nero is a German Shepherd and Nemo is a Dutch Shepherd. I'd never seen a Dutch Shepherd before but that is one beautiful dog. Nero did his job and then wanted to play with his toy and wanted someone to play with him but we were all too fascinated to play. Nemo was brought in and found the two hidden bags of drugs - one in the electrical box and one in under a metal container (like an empty propane container). The drug dogs are trained for 600 hours - that is a 6-month training at 10 hours a day - for their respective purposes whether it be drug searching, bomb searching, scents or whatever. Shepherds make the best dog for attack dogs because of the way their snout is made - long and narrow. When they clamp down on a bad guy, they hold strong until the handler commands them to release. The "bites" are not what causes the damage since they are basically immobilizing a person when they clamp down on your arms or legs or whatever body part they do (necks, face and groins are off limits); it's the person trying to pull away from the animal that causes the damage. So, be warned if you are committing a crime and a dog is put on you to attack, don't fight it; you will receive less damage to your physical being than if you fight it.

The information was very good and if I were writing stories for adults (oh wait, I have three stories for adults, one is now available as an ebook - The Proposal; and two more are coming soon - lol) I probably would use some of the information we get from our meetings. I love our local SinC group for the variety of guest speakers brought in to provide the true mystery writers such great information. We have had everyone from lawyers to FBI agents, arson inspectors to forensic psychologists, weapons experts and other mystery authors come to speak since I've been a member (about the last 4 years or so).

I encourage anyone in the upper state of South Carolina or even North Carolina who either writes mysteries or loves reading mysteries to visit our group which meets the first Thursday of the month at the Runway Cafe in Greenville, SC. Meetings start at 6:15 (with dinner being served starting about 6:30) and our guest speakers starting about 7 pm. See you all in the postings and maybe at one of our meetings - E :)

Fascinating moth

I was coming back from picking up the kids from band camp and dropping them off at the library yesterday and got out of my car and looked at the bushes growing there and saw these wings - The moth was folded up. I used a piece of paper and got it to open its wings and this is what I saw. The body is very heavy and it was clinging to this very small branch on this bush thing growing next to my parking spot. I came inside hoping Hailie had left her camera so I could take some pictures. She had not. So when she called me to come get her, I got her camera and she shot these two pictures for me. This is really quite a large moth and unusual in that it looks like peacock fathers on the wings with the "eyes" like that. I wonder if that is a warning for predators of the moth. Maybe Rena may know what kind of moth it is - she's good about nature things - I'll have to ask her - lol.


If anyone knows what kind of moth this is, please feel free to comment and let me know - E :)

PS - I did a bit of research and found this info:
Polyphemus Moth - Antheraea polyphemus
Order: Lepidoptera / Superfamily: Bombycoidea / Family: Saturniidae - Giant silkmoths / Subfamily: Saturniinae / Tribe: Saturniini

It seems the moth is laying (and that would explain the large body of the thing, which I didn't picture but I will if the moth is still there today). I will try to get more pictures of the moth next to my car as I can. Who knows maybe I'll even be able to get the whole life stage of the moth from larva to adult - E :)