♫But Daniel was hot, he drew first and shot, and Rocky collapsed in the corner♫
Our blood feud with the entire raccoon species proceeds apace.
People seem ready to misinterpret them, with their widdle people hands and bandit masks and remarkable intelligence. What they seem to be unaware of is how bloodthirsty, vicious, and huge these things really are. They are bears with fluffy tails, territorial, unafraid of people, with nastily toxic poop, and can grow to be as large as a sizeable dog. Don't mistake them for anything else.
When they appear in the night, they break into coops to steal eggs, but they also kill the chickens just for fun. For sport. They don't even eat them, they just twist the birds' heads off and leave the carcasses there. And a male bull-raccoon is so tough that, without getting into the gory details, I have been forced to upgrade to a sterner ammunition to pierce their armor-plated skulls.
I feel so bad for our neighbors across the street, who have raised pet chickens for six years now. A couple weeks ago, they were late in getting out to close up the run door, and they lost a chicken to a marauding raccoon. We trapped it and took care of it. More recently, I actually had to drop from a raid in an MMO, due to a sudden and distressed phone call. Our neighbor was home alone, her husband being off at a school function, and she heard hell being raised out back: two raccoons had broken back into their coop and were slaughtering the flock.
The bastards were gone by the time I got there, but they'd killed half the birds, including their oldest chicken (named "Goodnight Moon" by their children). They're borrowing my trap again, have it out baited with cat food and me on speed dial, because I'm apparently now the neighborhood game warden. (Meaning I have the most experience, a .22 rifle, and am not squeamish at the process. It's a helluva lot more humane than what the cage-trap company actually recommends, which is to fill a trash can with water and submerge the entire trap for 3-4 minutes ...I mean Christ, man. Better to just switch the lights off.)
This time, if we snag them, I am finishing that coonskin cap I've been working on. I've got the entire setup for processing and tanning hides, I just need material - and material just moved in and started preying on my neighbors.
People seem ready to misinterpret them, with their widdle people hands and bandit masks and remarkable intelligence. What they seem to be unaware of is how bloodthirsty, vicious, and huge these things really are. They are bears with fluffy tails, territorial, unafraid of people, with nastily toxic poop, and can grow to be as large as a sizeable dog. Don't mistake them for anything else.
When they appear in the night, they break into coops to steal eggs, but they also kill the chickens just for fun. For sport. They don't even eat them, they just twist the birds' heads off and leave the carcasses there. And a male bull-raccoon is so tough that, without getting into the gory details, I have been forced to upgrade to a sterner ammunition to pierce their armor-plated skulls.
I feel so bad for our neighbors across the street, who have raised pet chickens for six years now. A couple weeks ago, they were late in getting out to close up the run door, and they lost a chicken to a marauding raccoon. We trapped it and took care of it. More recently, I actually had to drop from a raid in an MMO, due to a sudden and distressed phone call. Our neighbor was home alone, her husband being off at a school function, and she heard hell being raised out back: two raccoons had broken back into their coop and were slaughtering the flock.
The bastards were gone by the time I got there, but they'd killed half the birds, including their oldest chicken (named "Goodnight Moon" by their children). They're borrowing my trap again, have it out baited with cat food and me on speed dial, because I'm apparently now the neighborhood game warden. (Meaning I have the most experience, a .22 rifle, and am not squeamish at the process. It's a helluva lot more humane than what the cage-trap company actually recommends, which is to fill a trash can with water and submerge the entire trap for 3-4 minutes ...I mean Christ, man. Better to just switch the lights off.)
This time, if we snag them, I am finishing that coonskin cap I've been working on. I've got the entire setup for processing and tanning hides, I just need material - and material just moved in and started preying on my neighbors.