This one ate a big woody!
speaking of small rodents type mammals, I had a very sad experience today. I noticed that there was something who made a little (ok, BIG) burrow at E's house and didn't say anything to the parents.
But, when they asked me yesterday if I'd seen a ground hog or it's quarters I said yes and showed them. TODAY, the trapper came to the house and set a trap (with marigolds as bait). I asked him about what would happen after he caught the bugger - he'd put it down he said.
He explained why, using lots of important reasons. But, what it amounts to is that people can't be bothered with critters eating their flowers and digging under their lawns. Even if the critters lived there first. And, that the sanctuaries won't take more critters than it can sustain.
I got REALLY sad, so sad that E actually stopped talking (she is a gabby kid) and just sort of looked at me. I looked out to the guys truck and checked out his gear, I saw movement. The traps in the truck were full. Raccoons, rabbits, and other furry fuzzballs I couldn't quite see well enough to ID.
It was very very sad for me. Sometimes I really hate us.
"Man is a bad animal."
People suck.
yeah
sigh
I love raccoons.
Not to be unkind to you, Lil K, but racoons can be a grave problem for people. Their numbers are much greater than they would be in a state of nature, because man has eliminated predators, and provides such a bountiful feast for them. While i was visiting Lovey this last weekend, Mr. Bailey was constantly sniffing around her little shed in the garden, and barking at it. Finally, on Friday, Lovey went out, leaving the dogs in the house, and opened the shed. A female raccoon is living in there with two kits. If she let the dogs out, they'd try to take the raccoon down, and one or both could be killed. Every morning, i'd go outside to find that the trash can had been knocked down, the handles which lock the lid in place pulled back, and the garbage pulled out and strewn about. Saturday, as i sat on the front gallery, i looked across the street and to the south, and movement caught my eye. I saw a raccoon climbing out of a hole in the eaves of an apartment building (two apartments, an "up-and-down"), and scuttling off over the roof. Within a few minutes, there was a commotion behind a house two doors further south, and a young man appeared, climbing the roof of the house next door, and giving chase to the raccoon, which had dumped his garbage, and was now attempting to flee back to its hole. Yes, it's a shame what happens to animals, but perhaps because i was raised a country boy, i have less sympathy, even though i personally abhor the idea of harming any mammal, and don't willing kill anything even as small as an insect, unless bitten. If you have ever known a raccoon personally--i have--they are ill-tempered, vindictive and sly; they are also very adroit with their "hands," making for more effective mischief. Of all the small creatures of the forest who now haunt human habitations, i have the least sympathy for the raccoon.
oh I know, boss, raccoons are over-running the human population centers. But, it all boils down to it being our fault. It's their little adroit hands that are so endearing to me! And, really, I know there's not a thing I could do to stop it, and that it shouldn't neccessarily be stopped. But, it still makes me ill.
And i understand completely how you feel, i get very depressed when i consider the great, frighteningly incomprehensible world of mankind as it must appear to the "wee, furly, skitterin' craytures" . . .
I'm in my truck driving away from Setanta's house where I just released 21 raccoons into the back yard..........
j
12 ga. over and under, with re-loads, packed with rock salt . . . won't kill anything, but by dog, they'll leave the neighborhood for good . . .
either that, or the lil' suckers will be well seasoned..........
I've et possum, squirrel, rabbit . . . never coon . . .
never ate a racoon either, the other three are pretty good though
And this one - it was a damn fine thread.....DON'T LET THE WOODCHUCKS DIE!!!!!!!
Heehee - someone thought Oz had gophers today....we don't have woodchucks either!!!!!
yep, oz don't have no normal animules.
So do!!!!!!! What is abnormal about superb fairy wrens, or numbats, or marsupial tigers?
