When I go out to feed in the mornings, I am never quite sure what I'm going to find in my yard. Sometimes there are racoons, skunks or stray cats, but always there are deer. They come right in by my corral to feast on the hay I have stacked there for my livestock. Yesterday I saw this big guy. He has been hanging around here since about Thanksgiving. He is smart enough not to show his rack during hunting season, but immediately afterward, he began coming to my yard with his little herd of does and fawns. I like seeing them and I don't mind sharing my livestock feed with them, as long as they don't eat too much.
I have an animosity for those darn racoons, though. They get into everything and make such a mess, besides they are little thieves. They cabbage onto anything shiny and take off toward the creek with it. They get into my grains no matter where I store them. I finally foiled them, though, and put the sacks of feed in the cab of an old pickup truck. Then they got up on top of the cab above the windows, and I found where they were trying to pry open the windows to get to the feed. Really. They even do team-work. I used to store my dog food in the garage in those large plastic garbage containes that have lids that have to be turned and lifted at the same time. Those little terrorists figured out how to open them. That's why they have masks over their eyes. They are robbers.
Recently, I sat out in the truck all one night with a gun and my dog, Nacho. I was determined to shoot some coons. They came in about two a.m. and I was dozing, but Nacho sat up and growled. I looked and saw one shinny up into the front of the livestock trailer where I had some feed stored, so I jumped out with my gun and Nacho took off after another racoon. By the time I got to the trailer, the little bugger knew he was in trouble and was hunkered down behind the feed. I didn't want to shoot a hole in the front of my trailer, so I got a rake and raked him down. He sprinted for the trailer door and I jumped out after him, but he smacked himself up against the house and ran along the perimeter. I got one clear shot at him as he scurried from the house to the garage, and I missed. Oh well, I really don't have the heart to shoot the little furry critters, anyway, so I just put the feed in metal barrels and placed big rocks on the lids. The next day I noticed the robbers had come back and were scratching on the lids and the rocks trying to get into the feed. All in a night's work for them and me.
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