With having a weasel attack our chickens lately, and coyotes running around in the field right behind our house I have been a little on edge with the wildlife.
Today I was walking around our neighbor calls to me, "Hey Becca! Get over here, there's a critter behind my pile of metal siding!" So I ran to the other side of the fence, and he told me something ran past his dog, and the dog chased it behind the metal siding, I asked him what it was, he said he had no idea it just had a funny looking tail. He lifted the pile of siding, and I jumped behind it to where he said it had ran. All I could see was a rodent like tail sticking out, and it looked like he was trying to squeeze through my fence into my yard. (My chickens were standing right on the other side.) From what I could tell at the time I thought rat! I didn't want it to get my chickens, but I for sure did not want it to come back later, and somehow break into my garage where all my rabbits are. So I found an old broom stick laying on the ground, and gave it a good bop at where I thought it's head would be.
The critter sort of fell to one side, and I grabbed a pair of heavy leather gloves, grabbed it by the tail, and pulled it up to discover a.....
Muskrat! Still alive too, but a little funny after the bop to the head. Upon seeing that it was NOT something that was a great danger to my animals I started to feel bad for bopping it in the first place. Even raising what we do for meat, and fur I still love animals, and it's very rare for me to just whack at something with a stick, but in the moment I was not about to let a potential rat, or weasel get at my animals.
After sometime the muskrat came to, so I scooped it up, and placed in one of our spare metal cages, and he's resting in the garage until I figure out what to do. There's a creek about a mile into the field behind our house, and I am pretty sure that's where it came from. I am thinking about hiking back there, and releasing it.
For now all he's doing is napping in the corner of the cage, and I am sort of surprised at how docile it is. After putting it in the cage I offered him a bowl of water, and happily slurped it up. Then I placed some hay in the cage as well, and he made himself a nice little bed. I think that's my way of trying to apologize for bopping the poor thing.
Today I was walking around our neighbor calls to me, "Hey Becca! Get over here, there's a critter behind my pile of metal siding!" So I ran to the other side of the fence, and he told me something ran past his dog, and the dog chased it behind the metal siding, I asked him what it was, he said he had no idea it just had a funny looking tail. He lifted the pile of siding, and I jumped behind it to where he said it had ran. All I could see was a rodent like tail sticking out, and it looked like he was trying to squeeze through my fence into my yard. (My chickens were standing right on the other side.) From what I could tell at the time I thought rat! I didn't want it to get my chickens, but I for sure did not want it to come back later, and somehow break into my garage where all my rabbits are. So I found an old broom stick laying on the ground, and gave it a good bop at where I thought it's head would be.
The critter sort of fell to one side, and I grabbed a pair of heavy leather gloves, grabbed it by the tail, and pulled it up to discover a.....
Muskrat! Still alive too, but a little funny after the bop to the head. Upon seeing that it was NOT something that was a great danger to my animals I started to feel bad for bopping it in the first place. Even raising what we do for meat, and fur I still love animals, and it's very rare for me to just whack at something with a stick, but in the moment I was not about to let a potential rat, or weasel get at my animals.
After sometime the muskrat came to, so I scooped it up, and placed in one of our spare metal cages, and he's resting in the garage until I figure out what to do. There's a creek about a mile into the field behind our house, and I am pretty sure that's where it came from. I am thinking about hiking back there, and releasing it.
For now all he's doing is napping in the corner of the cage, and I am sort of surprised at how docile it is. After putting it in the cage I offered him a bowl of water, and happily slurped it up. Then I placed some hay in the cage as well, and he made himself a nice little bed. I think that's my way of trying to apologize for bopping the poor thing.
opcorn:
