(Photo credit: John and Karen Hollingsworth – USFWS)
OK. I admit it.
The title of this post is slightly misleading. I had a run-in this morning with an armadillo that I wanted to tell you about, and I looked far and wide to find some connection to tax law, but I just couldn’t find one. If you know of one, please let me know.
Here’s what happened this morning.
Gunner, our Great Dane, began barking before sunrise. It turns out that he had a armadillo cornered near a porch in the back of the house. Now if we lived in Texas, that might not be big news, but this is Tennessee. An armadillo in our yard? Really?
Anyway, Gunner was praised for being a good watch dog, and he was restrained. The armadillo, meanwhile, seemed quite content to stay put in the hole he had dug in the corner of the house.
Now, here’s the only connection I could find between armadillos and taxes.
Armadillos can cause leprosy in humans. If you’re a student of the Bible, you know that Jesus cured lepers and . . . here’s the connection . . ., he also spent time with tax collectors. I know that this is a stretch as far as the link between armadillos and taxes, but, hey, it is a link of sorts.
While looking for armadillos in the world of tax, I ended up reading Luke 3:12-13, where Jesus had this interaction with tax collectors (i.e., the IRS of that time):
Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”
In addition to finding a link, however tenuous, between armadillos and tax law, I also think it’s excellent to see Jesus’ words that tax collectors should collect no more than they are authorized to do. Pretty awesome Bible verse for a tax blog!
So, how did our meet-and-greet with the armadillo end up?
We called a very nice fellow with a local company called Tennessee Trappers, and he did what a critter trapper does; he trapped that armadillo quickly, efficiently, and with no injury to the animal.
I did learn that armadillos are prodigious jumpers. When the trapper threw a net over the armadillo, it went crazy, momentarily got free, and jumped at least 5 feet straight up. Luckily, the cage was right where it needed to be, and the armadillo went straight down into the cage. It was amazing!
We got several photos of the armadillo, which I may try to upload later. For now, I’ve included a photo of a generic armadillo above, just to satisfy all the armadillo fans out there.
Perhaps, I should change the name of this blog to “T for Texas” just for today in honor of the amazing armadillo.
Have a wonderful day.