I had an unusual experience today

I think he's telling the truth.

There is a tree on my property that needed to be cut down because of recent wind damage which had snapped off the top of the tree and left what was essentially a 20 foot trunk, shredded at the top where the breakage had occurred and with a few branches remaining on the side here and there.

I had already cut up the top part of the tree and removed that yesterday and this morning I decided to finish the job.

I fired up my chain saw and cut a circle around the girth of the tree about six inches deep all the way around, just enough to weaken it enough for my Bobcat to finish the job.

I started the Bobcat, raised the bucket, and pushed above the cut and the tree top fell to the ground.

That 's when things started getting freaky. As the tree fell down and left the standing trunk I found myself staring at four baby raccoons. I didn't realize the tree was hollow from the top down to about where I made my circular cut. So now there was a stump there with a basin at the top and four baby raccoons nestled inside.

I walked up and looked at the babies and noticed one had scratches on its back legs where the teeth of the saw must have just grazing him. Then I noticed another one trying to stand up and I realized I had sheared off both of his back legs. I felt sick.

I walked over the main part of the tree and peered inside and, sure enough, there was the mother, about halfway down, peering back at me. I fired up the saw and held it to the opening and flushed her out the other side. She raced to the edge of the clearing and ran up a tree where I presume she watched me carefully, to see what was going to happen to her babies.

I put them in a box and carried them to the edge of the clearing and set them there. (With the exception of the wounded one, which I put out of his misery)

Then, I shut the operation down. I am going to check the box tomorrow, to see if the mother managed to retrieve the babies and take them to another location. I suppose there is a danger of a fox or other predator passing along and stumbling across an easy snack, but that a chance I had to take. What else was I to do?

I'm sure patiodog is going to lecture me for this and demand to know why I had to kill the one with the amputated legs. He will insist that prosthetic limbs could have come into play. Whatever. Sorry, pdog, but I did what I thought was right.

It was a hell of an experience.