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GentlewoodFarms
March 3, 2018

~ Clever ~

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He looks well fed, doesn't he? He should. He's been murdering my chickens.

My birds are three years old this spring, so this is the year that I'd be retiring them and taking them to the chicken auction, so they're all headed to the same eventual end. But it still makes me furious to have to deal with a midnight marauder who thinks my chicken pen is his private hunting grounds.

Raccoons are smart - and this one was exceptionally clever, figuring out a way into my chicken pen through so small a hole I could not find it. I installed more hardwire along the inside of the pen, checked along the floor where the bottom meets the ground, checked along the roof line. I could not find a single hole. Not one. I wasn't sure WHAT was killing my birds. My sense was “raccoon” but when one gets into the pen, they'll usually kill all the birds at once. This one was a one kill a night kind of thing, which was just weird. He managed to kill five birds in six days with me not having Clue ONE how he was doing it.

I had to get a trap. And bait it with sardines -- which must be better than CHICKEN because here he is. I was so mad. I had been thinking of all sorts of various ways to send him to Jesus, but once he was in the trap and obviously terrified, I realized that he's just a raccoon, doing what raccoons do, which is hunt down an easy meal. Just because he's committing premeditated murder is no reason I have to. And as one warrior to another, I had to admire his resourcefulness, persistence, and patience.

But there still needs to be some justice in my world and for my poor birds.

I took him 15 miles away, out into the middle of nowhere, not a farm or ranch in sight, and dropped him at the edge of the river. He won't know where his den is, he won't know where the food source is, and he'll eventually run into the bigger raccoon that is the alpha male of the territory. Then he'll get some justice.

Since this photo, I've trapped two more of his friends. They may be clever, but I'm smarter.

~*~

For the following challenges
1. First photo of March
2. Spotlight Challenge - I lifted Cathy Lane's "Memories Like This" which you can see here

https://www.scrapbook.com/gallery/public/5144477_7_298615.jpg

3. I'm thinking about submitting it to the Animal / Pet challenge, although there is really NOTHING cuddly and furbaby-ish about this guy.


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Cheer sent!

Thanks for spreading positivity!

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