BS: Animals Wanting In

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: SueB
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 01:13 PM

My husband left a trap set on the place one time, then went away for a few days. I went down to check on it and found a frantic raccoon in the trap, and no husband to deal with it. Let me just say that before you trap the wild animal in the cage, it would be good to have a plan for what to do with it once you've got it. Thick leather gloves are a good idea, so are burlap sacks or a tarp or something to wrap around the cage so you can handle it without being bitten or scratched by the occupant. They're very frightened - they don't get that your intentions are good. Also, they can find their way back from farther than 5 miles, sometimes - my husband trapped a family of raccoons, mom and dad and two little ones, and released them eight miles away at Whiskey Creek. They were back in a couple of days. (He used chocolate covered donuts for bait.)

With animals that chew, I've had good luck using furniture polish as a deterrent. I cured a house rabbit of chewing on the electrical cords by spraying them with lemon pledge, and cured a passel of puppies of chewing on the garden hose also by spraying it with lemon pledge. They sell a product at pet stores called Bitter Apple which is supposed to be non-toxic but very bad tasting and smelling for that purpose, but it doesn't work.

Gypsy's suggestion is the best, if your county extension agent is a good one. Our county agent out here isn't worth the price of the bullet to shoot him with.

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: Nerd
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 01:20 PM

Thanks, Ellenpoly. Since the number of messages in a thread is of little import to me, it never occurred to me that a practice like el ted's existed. Takes all kinds to make a forum, I guess...

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: Gypsy
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 10:12 PM

Another one for chewie animals.....cheap perfume. the stuff that your 1st grader gets you by the quart. Makes a good dog repellant, too. Spray on whatever article, or your wrists, if repelling an overly friendly slobbery dog, and they will run. Non violent, too

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: GUEST,Lilyfestre
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 02:13 PM

We have such a critter in our walls. I can hear him scamper across the ceiling and from time to time he starts making noise in the walls...sometimes even right near the computer. One time I banged on the wall to frighten him away and HE GROWLED AT ME!   LOL...I about fell out of my chair laughing!

Silly beast!

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: SueB
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 03:46 PM

Funny, yes, until he chews on your wiring...

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: LilyFestre
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 05:49 PM

So instead of laughing at a situation that has been so for more than 2 years (not due to lack of trying various things to get this creature out), you would suggest what? Panic? Fear? Worry?

There isn't much more we can do except to laugh about it.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 04:57 AM

have you tried asking him to leave or puuting up a notice telling him to be quiet!

Otherwise NUKE HIM.

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: LilyFestre
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 06:28 AM

LOL...nope..haven't tried asking him! I wonder if I sent him a nice little note with a clip of the local houses for rent/sale, if he'd take a hint?!?!?   :)   However, I do have a shotgun by the door.........if I ever see the litter bugger, he's toast!

KA-BOOM!

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 01:36 PM

My wife's grandfather used to trap the squirrels (he hated them with a passion) and take them across the river. They always seemed to come back. Then we watched someone at the church on our side of the river get out of his car and let loose the squirrels that he had trapped on the other side of the river. It was too funny! they had probably ben trading squirrels for years without ever knowing about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 01:52 PM

That's rich--trading squirrels!

Trouble with something that lives in the walls that it will eventually die in the walls, and then you'll suffer. An acquaintance of mine in Mississippi has written extensively about the attempt to get the putrification smell out of the plaster walls. They're not sure exactly which section of wall it died in. (This is a possum that had a taste for soft drinks--over time it bit little holes in all of the cans of SevenUP that had been stored in the garage.)

It really is best if you can lure or scare critters out of the attic, basement, or walls before they decide to shuffle off this mortal coil.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: GUEST,Melani
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 02:33 PM

Panther urine might work--it's said to be a good deer repellant. Of course, collecting it can be tough...

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 04:27 PM

Factoid about Possums (or Opossum if you prefer):
They have the largest number of teeth of all mammals. 50! All needle sharp. Contrary to popular belief they do not "play dead" when a predator approaches and can (and will) bite the hand that feeds them.

We had a neighbor in North Carolina that used to keep his cat food bowls outside of the house. One of his cats went missing. One night he heard the bowl moving arouns outside and thought it was his cat. Being nearsighted he exited the house and poured more food into the bowl (the poor thing must be hungry after being gone so long ya know?). He then reached down and began petting the cat. It had very stringy hair where once it had luxurious fur. Poor cat he thought, must have been a terrible time wherever you went. Then he got to the naked, rasp-like tail with the crook in the end and decided to turn on the light to get a better look at his poor cat's problems.

He'd been petting the biggest possum in our neighborhood. The catfood bowls came inside in the morning.
Never did find the damn cat!

Subject: RE: BS: Animals Wanting In
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 06:08 PM

This reminds me of a poem by Leslie Marmon Silko, of Laguna Pueblo. From her book Storyteller

SKELETON FIXER

What happened here?
she asked
Some kind of accident?
Words like bones
scattered all over thet place. . . .

Old Man Badger traveled
from place to place
searching for skeleton bones.
There was something
only he could do with them.

On the smooth sand
Old Man Badger started laying out the bones.
It was a great puzzle for him.
He started with the toes
He loved their curve
like a new moon,
like a white whisker hair.

Without thinking
he knew their direction,
laying each toe bone
to walk east.
"I know,
it must have been this way.
Yes,"
he talked to himself as he worked.

He strung the spine bones
as beautiful as any shell necklace.

The leg bones were running
so fast
dust from the ankle joints
surrounded the wind.

"Oh poor dear one who left your bones here
I wonder who you are?"
Old Skeleton Fixer spoke to the bones
Because things don't die
they fall to pieces maybe,
get scattered or separate,
but Old Badger Man can tell
how they once fit together.

Though he didn't recognize the bones
he could not stop;
he loved them anyway.

He took great care with the ribs
marveling at the structure
which had contained the lungs and heart.
Skeleton Fixer had never heard of
such things as souls.
He was certain
only of bones.

But where a heart once beat
there was only sand.
"Oh I will find you one--
somewhere around here!"
And a yellow butterfly
flew up from the grass at his feet.

"Ah! I know how your breath left you--
Like butterflies over an edge,
not falling but fluttering
their wings rainbow colors--
Wherever they are
your heart will be."

He worked all day
He was so careful with this one--
it felt like the most special of all.
---Old Man Badger didn't stop
until the last spine bone
was arranged at the base of the tail.

"A'moo'ooh, my dear one
these words are bones,"
he repeated this
four times
------Pa Pa Pa Pa!
------Pa Pa Pa Pa!
------Pa Pa Pa Pa!
------Pa Pa Pa Pa!

Old Coyote Woman jumped up
and took off running.
She never even said "thanks."

Skeleton Fixer
shook his head slowly.

"It is surprising sometimes," he said
"how these things turn out."
But he never has stopped fixing
the poor scattered bones he finds.

A piece Of A Bigger Story They Tell Around Laguna and Acoma Too
---------------------------------From A Version Told by Simon J. Ortiz