Referring to our place as the homestead is pretty realistic. There are tractors, barns, rolling hills, ponds, and wildlife. I've learned to adapt to it over these last few years. At least I thought so. I am nothing if not an animal lover. I love my dog more than I probably should. I am becoming quite fond of the cat that we just learned was never a girl. HE is in fact a boy. (Nice of the vet to wait til the 3rd visit to drop that bomb, don't you think?)
Most mornings we awake to deer out in the pasture.
Upon arriving home late at night you will often see a family of racoons making their way from one field to the next.
One summer we had a den of foxes living in the ravine along side our house.
There are barn cats perched on the fence hunting field mice.
We owned horses and a mule for a long time.
This weekend was the first time I had to have a painful experience with the wildlife. Saturday afternoon as I was driving up the road towards home there was a lone racoon walking in the road. Now usually the coons will get back in the woods quickly upon seeing a car. This guy actually rolled over and played dead as I drove by. That's weird. Later that afternoon I mention to the Mr. how bizarre it was to see a lone coon, let alone in the middle of the day, let alone playing dead. The boy chimed in with a story about having to physical move a racoon out of the way with his boot while he was stacking firewood just a bit ago. Mr's eyes got very big and he abruptly asked if the boy touched the coon. He said no, thank god! Mr. was just certain that this was the same coon I had seen and it must be rabid. We talked about calling animal control, but by this time it was night and certainly they wouldn't come out on Saturday night....
Well Sunday morning this racoon was curled up in a cute little furball right outside of one of the basement windows. Immediately I told the Mr. I was concerned for the dog's safety (duh.) He said we needed to call animal control. I did. Turns out the county animal control is only in place to deal with domestic animals. They are not licensed to deal with wildlife control. I was told to call a commercial wildlife removal company.
Yeah. On a Sunday. The day after new years. I'm so sure that wouldn't have cost an arm and a leg.
Mr. directed the boy to go get a gun and put it out of its pain. By this time coon was clearly about at the end of its life. I'll spare the details and tell you only that I shed some tears. It was very sad. We creamated the little guy once we knew he was dead and had to burn the area around him to ensure any risk of rabies getting passed along was also gone.
It was sad. I am still a bit disturbed at what I saw when I looked out the window at what I thought was going to be a cute little fur ball before we decided it was time to deal with it.
To top it all off, when cleaning after we finished working on the media wall a HUGE spider crept in somehow. As if this isn't great enough it was when the boys left to go to the store so I was forced to smash it with the fireplace scooper.... EW!
That was rough to re-count. But it had to be done.
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