This is not the second raccoon I trapped. He would not have stood still long enough to be photographed this way. Also, his teeth were pointier and not so white.
I was just about to stop the project. I thought I had cleared my property of these nasty things. Then, on the last day I was to set the trap, I got another.
I think I got the alpha male. When I got near him, he hissed, growled, and bit the cage. He backed himself to one end of the trap and tried to explode through the other like a charging ram. He tried to scratch me through the cage and succeeded a couple of times, though he never broke the skin. He was big and mean.
He should have been grateful to me, since I hauled him to within a mile of his relative, the one I trapped just under four weeks ago. Unfortunately, he wasn't. The hardest thing about the traps is hooking them open. Hooking this one open when its contents were trying to bite my fingers off took me a good five minutes. I finally had to shake the trap and twist it so violently that its contents were disoriented. This gave me roughly three seconds to work before the beast came to its senses and could aim its teeth and claws effectively again. If I ever catch another one like that one, I will leave him in the cage until his ribs show through his chest. I am not interested in rabies shots.
Maybe I need a new trap:
At least with this one, I would only have to keep an eye on three claws.
I think I am developing a healthy hatred of certain mammals. Add an acre to my carbon footprint.
13 comments:
Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. Use a shovel. One quick whack in the neck region with the edge.... My footprint is quite large.
Hey, you better keep that trap out for awhile longer. I hope the alpha man didn't have rabies!!!
Hey anonymous,everyone is going to think you are me.....because I like the way you think, and everyone knows I am a 34 footprint.
(I think that works out to almost 8 planets)
I think the hot sauce method would only make this guy more mad.
Wrong trap. I could not use the shovel on the thing when it was in the cage. Once it was out, it was gone in a flash. Another reason for the alternate trap!
That coon in the picture must have visited Rach; his teeth are beautiful. If this was happening at my house, it would definitely be a JW job. I have enough trouble keeping the rabbits out of my gardens; I learned last year that they eat rose bushes! Now two of my young roses have fences around them so they will have a chance to grow...
I had trouble with a rabbit once. It ate all of the insulation off of my Direct TV cable. Now,this means war. Kill with my rose bush all you want,but don't mess with my NFL Ticket. I think my ecological footprint just got bigger.
lud, protect your rose bushes because once you get a rabbit that can deal with and swallow those thorns, your cable will be history in no time. Are you sure it's not squirrels stripping the wire? They love to strip bark off trees; they are even more destructive than the rabbits.
Ke, I don't need to worry anymore. I have a hawk now. He picks off everything before it can get near the house. He had no problem with a squirrel the other day. I love to watch him hunt. I had to clean up what was left of the squirrel. He usually takes his meals back into the woods,but he ate the squirrel in the yard.
OOO...I need a hawk!!
When Sean gets bigger,I will let him out in the back yard. I think the hawk would try to take him right now.
I have two hawks, but neither is worth anything. They just circle my yard and screech a lot.
lud, meanwhile Sean can come live with me!!
Plant food in your backyard, buy a spot light, some red saran wrap for light, and a BB gun and wait. You can get them all in one night because they don't leave wounded behind.
Post a Comment