re: #165 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Found on Facebook. Don’t mess with armadillos.

Texas man shoots armadillo, bullet ricochets back into his face
Animal’s status unknown because authorities were unable to find it

cbc.ca

A story…. I’m working nites at the ol Data Center. Early this morning about 4am, I was making a pot of coffee in the break room and decided to step outside while it brewed. Typically at nite I see skunks working the curb line, a few evenings back I had a family of 7 trash pandas walk by the windows as I had my 2am meal. This morning I saw something moving out in the grass by the curb that was neither skunk not TP. Only 1 thing left in central Texas, Dillo…..

I have yet to see one up close. I see dead ones all the time and I think the “Necks” in these part go out of their way to run them down. Lots of Frisbee dillos on the roads around here. Anyway, Dillo is busy foraging in the lawn, his snout is buried to his ears. Poking and rooting, I walked right up to him, he’s literally at my feet and still rooting like crazy. I could have snatched him up by the tail but that wasn’t my intent. Instead, I just reached out and lightly smacked the rear of its carapace. Dillos head shot up, it made some sort of frightened sound and he was off towards the fence line like a rocket.

Strange animal. And the armor they carry is dense and hard. Under the right circumstances and the right angle I could see where if could deflect a low velocity round.
Anyway, that was my experience with an armadillo last night.