Raccoon chows down some more

 
 
 
  

Raccoon chows down

 
 
 
  

Best meal he ever had

These are the pictures of the raccoon after he ate the chicken leg Leotis put out there. Also the black cat visited that night. These are from March 11th and 12th. I got a new computer and it took me a while to load some software so I could get back to posting. The frogs went back into hibernation since it got cold again. At least I assume that's where they disappeared to.

raccoon

raccoon

raccoon

raccoon

Removing the pond net

Today Leotis and I removed the pond net. Problem is, there were frogs in there, and a bunch of leaves. So I had to pick through the leaves to find any frogs. Plus there were a bunch of frog eggs in the water! They don't waste any time. So I made sure to scoop the frog eggs to where there was no net, so we wouldn't lift them out of the water. There were 4 frogs caught in the net. Two hopped off into the woods. Hopefully they will make it back. Two more were stuck in the net. One we freed and put it back in the pond, easily enough. The other one was more stuck in the net, and I had Leotis go get some scissors. I cut the net off but I think he may have lost a toe because of it getting caught in the net and struggling. (I didn't cut it off!) I hope he's okay. We put him back in the water. I think he'll be alright. So I guess we'll have a new crop of frogs. It already seems like there are too many! Some of the aquatic plants are still alive. I don't know if the frogs need all those leaves to live off of, but there are still plenty of leaves in the pond I'm sure, since I only covered 3/4 of the pond with the net. Anyway, hopefully they're happier now that the net isn't in the pond. Next year we'll have to take it off sooner. Leotis put an unmedicated chicken leg on the pond deck in front of the camera. At dust we saw the flash go off a couple times. I hope it was a fox and not the raccoon. I'll check tomorrow. Drat. Leotis said he just saw a raccoon out there. That's probably what got the chicken leg.

Strange Events

There had been a tree that was leaning in the woods, and after the snowstorm, it was leaning even more. Last night we heard it fall. Then I had a dream of a tree falling, and all these animals came running towards the house (including camels and all kinds of things).
This morning the pond water was moving. At first I didn't know what it was, but it wasn't raining, and then I saw it was a bunch of frogs-I counted 18 of them!!! Unfortunately we hadn't taken the net off the pond yet which we put on in the fall to catch the leaves, because it had frozen, and today all of a sudden it was like 70 degrees. So hopefully the frogs won't get stuck in the net. I'll take it off tomorrow. I don't know where they all came from-I only ever saw like a few frogs last summer from all those tadpoles.
Leotis called a wildlife hotline and today went and picked up some medicine to treat the fox's sarcoptic mange. He also got a bunch of information on what to do, and he cooked up a ton of chicken legs that we're supposed to feed to the foxes, once a day. Then when they are used to being fed, we're supposed to inject a chicken leg with the medicine. Hopefully that will work and that we won't just have a bunch of fat raccoons and cats.

Return of the mangey fox

Well, the cat seemed to hang out for a long time, and the raccoon made 6 appearances. I feel bad for the mangey fox. If you look at the first picture of him, he at least had some fur on the end of his tail but now nothing! I definitely think there are 3 different foxes. I wonder if the healthy fox and the mangey one are a couple, since this is the second time they both came around. I hope it's just mange and not a more serious health problem.

At least the other fox still has a good coat.

Poor mangey fox. Looks mangier than ever!

Finally after an hour and 20 minutes, the cat leaves the area.

cat

cat sitting

cat

cat

cat taking a drink from the pond

raccoon heading towards compost

raccoon