Panel Eating Predator

Oh wow, do I have a story for you!!!  This one does not relate to mice but it seemed appropriate since it does deal with the local wildlife and my personal property.  My family recently took a quick 5 day road trip north to Portland, Oregon. We were in Portland for a family reunion and it was a very fun time (I will be dealing with that topic on More Cakes and Ale - get excited).  On Monday we were driving the last leg of our road trip home when I got a call from my mother.  It is common knowledge that my husband, kids, and I live on the same property as my parents.  Anytime we are gone, they look after things and feed the animals.  While doing their "house sitting" duties, my father found an interesting thing.  He had my mother call to ask if  my husband had accidentally scrapped or caught my car with the tractor before we left.  I told her he hadn't been using the tractor and why was she asking?  Apparently my car had experienced some pretty extensive damage.  Here is what we saw when we pulled into the drive several hours later:

 

That is the wheel well yanked completly out from under the car.  The bumper had been literally attacked and eaten.

pieces of the bumper and wheel well were scattered all over the ground

The damage was worse on the passenger side of the car but it was by no means limited to that area.  It continued around the bumper to the driver's side.

the license plate was completely torn off the front bumper

you can see the bite marks - they look like punctures

There were also scratches on the hood and driver-side mirror. 

Now for the investigation.  We think, as a family, we have figured out what happened.  Some animal of prey was running away from a predator and decided my car would be a safe hiding place.  Apparently they were correct because we say no evidence of slaughter (no blood or fur).  My husband did see evidence of an animal having been inside the engine bay but nothing with any gore.  So what could possibly do this kind of damage?  I have narrowed it down to three suspects: mountain lion/cougar, bobcat, or coyotes.  A few people have said bear but to my knowledge we don't have bears near us -they live more to the south.  I am leaning right now towards one of the feline suspects for the following reason.  In addition to the damage, there were some very large dirty paw prints on the hood.  They were pretty smudged so there was no clear definition giving away the owner of the paws.  But by the size, I don't think a coyote would be big enough to have that size of paw.  The bobcats I have seen around here have pretty big paws so they could be contenders. 

example of a bobcat - similar to the ones we have here (image taken form Bobcats - Tory Kallman Photography www.torykallman.com)

On one hand I am really annoyed that I have to repair my car when I left it safely at home.  On the other hand I am extremely impressed by the raw power and determination that led to the damage happening.  That was one hungry predator and I hope it has found food before my kids go out to play again.  My husband says its karma and a mouse was the prey hiding in the car.  It is payback for all of our murderous efforts - your thoughts?

Home Invasion

Death toll: 19

Well, we are still battling the mice - we can add one more confirmed kill to our numbers.

One of the risks of killing mice in your home is that some of these mice have little mice babies living within your walls.  When you trap a mommy mouse, this leaves the babies to die where they live.  This is our situation right now.  Somewhere in our hallway walls, we have collateral damage.  How do I know?  Remember, I am achingly familiar with the smell of decomposition (read earlier posts to learn why if you are not already aware).  When we walk from our kitchen into our hallway, we get a lovely whiff of some poor decaying creature.  My best guess is that it is a baby mouse since some of our recent casualties have appeared to be nursing mouse mommies.  Luckily when the decaying creature is that small, the odor dissipates rather quickly.  I am not about to start tearing into my sheet rock to find the corpse.

Beside the mice invasion, we recently had another visitor.  One night I was sitting in the living room watching TV and my big Australian Shepherd started a very loud, aggressive, fearful type of barking.  He was in the kitchen and was most definitely  focused on something on the floor.  I walked into the kitchen to investigate and realized we had a visitor. 

On the floor under the table was a young, very beautiful King Snake.  It is never a calm feeling when you find a snake slithering across the interior of your home but at least I knew this little guy was not poisonous.  Since my dog was barking, the snake was trying desperately to get away and wound up slithering into a storage bench.  I yelled for my husband and he started to empty out the storage bench.  There the snake was, all curled up trying to figure out just where the heck he had wound up (okay, I confess, I have no idea if it was a boy or girl but the name King Snake really lends itself to the assumption of boy).  My other half ran and grabbed his thick leather work gloves and then stood somewhat frozen, staring down at the snake.  I told him to remember to grab it behind the head and he responded, "I have a real aversion to reaching in and grabbing it."  We decided to take another tact and I emptied out the kids play dough bucket.  We truned the bucket upside down and trapped the snake.  We slid a piece of thick paper under the snake and flipped the bucket.  Here was our prize:

The snake was taken outside and tuned loose in our orchard.  I really hope this fulfills our snake in the house quota for a long while - we got lucky it wasn't a rattler.

Murderous Melee

Wow, we have literally been exploding with mouse activity this week.  My husband and I have been laying in bed listening to the little buggers run through our ceiling as we try to sleep. The first night this happened we new the gantlet had once again been thrown down - it was time to jump into battle once more.

Last Friday we set a few traps and caught one mouse.  The little guy had made two appearances during our evening TV time - brazenly running under the couch where we were lounging.  We knew there many more based on the pitter patter of their little feet above our heads so we upped our game.  On Monday we set four traps around the kitchen and pantry.

One of our traps sitting on our kitchen counter - very hygienic.

 All I can say about that attempt is that the mice had a very nice midnight snack.  They literally licked the traps clean but did not trip the snapping mechanism.  My husband decided that we needed new traps so he stocked up on Wednesday night.  This is where we really got serious because each day we were seeing more and more droppings.  They were concentrated around the kitchen counters and the floor of the pantry. We both felt like we were being taunted. 

Thursday night no fewer than six traps were set.  This time we made a point of really smashing the cheese into the flaps - those little mousy tongues were not going to get passed us again.

Trap set in the pantry - the mice like our rice.  I need to improve food storage again.

Friday morning we woke to no one, not two, but three dead mice - hallelujah!!  Two were caught in the pantry and one was caught in the kitchen.  That made a total of four kills for the week but we weren't done yet.  As an aside, I was getting ready to wash my lunch box to take to work and I had left a small dinner roll in a plastic baggie in my lunch box.  One of our furry friends had scurried into my lunch box and eaten a hole through the plastic and enjoyed the stale roll.  Brazen bastard.

Friday night we set the traps again - all six.  Saturday morning we checked and another two had met their maker.  Both of these were once caught in the pantry.  The total had increased to six dead mice. After all of this carnage, we decided it was time to empty the pantry storage and do some pretty deep cleaning.  We needed to clean out the daily dose of mouse excrement as well as some bodily fluids left by the previous night's executions.  I try to use natural cleaners where I can but yesterday that panty got a very healthy dosing of bleach thanks to my husband.  This made me feel much better.

This morning, we looked at the set traps and rejoiced to see numbers seven and eight had experienced their last supper.  As most people are celebrating the resurrection, we are celebrating the demise of eight of God's creatures.

I didn't realize my husband had been throwing the mice all in the same location when he emptied the traps (see previous blog regarding my feelings on the trap-emptying).  As I took a little walk to inspect our new orchard today, I stumbled upon the burial ground.  Here is what I saw:

At least the vultures will be happy.

Tonight we will do it all again and hopefully the running feet will stop.  Victory will be ours!! 

The Death Toll rises to 18

Hippity Hoppity

I have written so much about the mice out here in the sticks and I have occasionally touched on some of the other animals we encounter on a regular basis.  Today I want to share one of my favorite groups of animals we get to play with.  It is winter so we aren't seeing these guys right now but during the spring, summer, and fall we get inundated with frogs and toads.

My daughter loves these particular animals.  She also loves lizards but we'll leave that for another day. 

These two were found in a hole when my daughter and mother were watering the potted plants.  They were curled up together and my daughter dragged them out to carry them the 100 yards to our house.  I opened the door and this is what I saw:

My little ragamuffin - I think she was as dirty as the toads.

She was able to find these two in the same hole on two other days.  They finally got tired of being ripped from their home and moved on to find a more peaceful abode.

On another day, we were tearing out some dead plants.  My son and daughter pulled up a dead lavender plant and found a very fat toad.  He was safely hiding amidst the roots.

Her hands are masking his fat belly but he measured about 5 inches across at his mid section.  We put him back in his hole and caught him one more time before he moved out.  My children have yet to catch on to the cause and effect nature of catching animals.  Kids catch, animal moves away. 

During the summer, we will drive home in the dark and it is toad/frog mania.  We have counted 15 toads jumping around the driveway and yard at one time. 

One night this guy hopped up to the wall of our house and was tying to escape behind a storage container. In my efforts to move him back toward the grass, I dropped him on top of the container. 

At this point, he peed all over the container.  Yes, my fumbling scared the piss out of him.  I really need to leave the animal handling up to my daughter.

Another night I went out to give the dogs water and found this handsome guy waiting for me:

I took a quick pic but afterward I felt a little bad. I am guessing their eyes are not used to such bright lights.  The next day I moved the water dish and there he was, safely hiding in the dirt underneath.  He became a fairly regular resident under the water dish but that is to be expected now that I blinded him.

Most of what we see are toads but occassionally we find tree frogs.  My kids had a blow up swimming pool at Grandma's house.  One day they found this guy taking a swim:

Over the summer months I think my daughter caught 3 or 4 of these guys.  You may have noticed I have said a lot about my daughter catching these guys.  My son gets very excited about the animals but is much more hesitant about touching them.  He leaves that up to his fearless older sister.  Isn't it great that she actually gets to catch these slippery slimy things?  How sad that so many kids never get to see these things out of a cage...