The first year we were here we had a Badger kill 18 of my Chickens on Christmas Eve. He dug into the Chicken Pen, killed all he could and then dug a burrow to wait until he could stand to eat a bit more Chicken. Every fall or winter I get at least one Raccoon taking advantage of the abundance of protein here.
This year it was two Bobcats and at least one big Raccoon. One or the other dug a hole through the roof of my Pigeon house and almost decimated my pigeon population. They killed more than 20 birds. I had been counting on the excess of Pigeons for help on the winter food supply for Jessie the Peregrine.
With the help of my "trapper buddy" we set a live trap that he had bought just for catching Bob Cats. Well, we caught a Boar Raccoon in it and that rascal bent it enough out of shape to get out. In the mean time I rebuilt the roof of the Pigeon house and put a metal roof on it. I set about trying to catch the varmint, any way I could.
One day before Christmas one of the passing raptors killed a Mallard Duck down on the creek. The next morning the carcass was gone, so I knew he was still here. Time for plan B. I had bought a steel trap on one of my trips to Cabelas, so I did all the research I could on line, and proceeded to set that trap for him. It took a few days but he came through again and got caught in the trap. I could see the area where the trap was from the house, and could check it with bino's from the window. After a few days I went to check it and see about replacing the bait. Well the area was pretty torn up, and my trap was pulled through a Greasewood bush that I had wired the trap to, but it was empty. What ever had been trapped, pulled its foot out of the trap jaws. I had put a "trail Camera" where it could see the trap, and it showed a Raccoon peering in to the camera. In checking with my mentor I was told that Raccoons are very hard to keep in a trap. He suggested a rock for a drag rather than tying it hard and fast. I considered that option and decided that I didn't like the idea of searching through the Sage looking for a critter dragging a trap. I decided that nothing could uproot a Greaswood bush, so I used some aluminum wire that I found lying around the house, to secure the traps that I set to the Greasewood bushes.
I was so disgusted with the trap that I had bought from Cabelas That I ordered some bigger ones from a Trapping supply store on line, as well as some stuff to neutralize the smell. Nothing is as simple as a bullet, but one does as is needed for the problem at hand. My problem was that these guys were moving through in the middle of the night. When I sold my Coyote skins, I bought some prepared scents that were geared for Bobcats. Raccoons are merely a nuisance, Bobcats are worth something. I knew from tracks after a snow fall that a Bobcat some times moved along the the creek heading over to the ranch across the road.
When I got the new traps prepared I went down and replaced the one with the Cabelas trap and set a new one a bit further up the creek where I could see it from the house. I set the trap in as I would for a Bobcat, and put the scents in that I had bought. Not all that surprisingly, Skunk makes up most of the lures ingredients. Cats for whatever reason really like the smell of Skunk spray, be they domestic or wild. All through most of the rest of January nothing happened.
Then at noon on the day of the super bowl, I got up and did my usual look out of all the windows, of course looking for anything to shoot. I was quite surprised to see a big Bobcat down in the Sage coming up the creek towards the house. My rifle was right by the window, but I couldn't get a clean shot there so I went out to the rifle rest where I normally shoot, to try to get an angle that I could shoot him. Karen and I each saw him two more times, but so quick and fleeting a glance that I could never get my sights on him. He was not alarmed or even knew that we were trying to shoot him. They just move very stealthily from cover to cover, and it is rare to even see on in the wild at all. They blend so well that when they stop they literally disappear. Finally somehow or the other he disappeared and I never got a shot or another sighting of him. He apparently jumped the creek and got into the heavier cover and moved on up the creek heading for Tami's.
This morning I decided to check the traps and see if the baits needed refreshing. I was alarmed to find that I had again caught something, but this time the trap and the critter was gone. The ground was torn up all around the Greasewood bush, and I could see where sharp claws had dug up the ground. I of course assumed that I had caught and lost a Bobcat. I had wired the trap to the bush with a piece of the Aluminum wire that I had found here at the place. I liked it because it was very easy to bend. I never in my wildest dreams thought that a critter could break it, but there it was. Feeling like a idiot as well as a cad, I went back to the house and got the dogs which were my only hope of finding it.
Now my two dogs are designed to find birds, but they were my only option. Josie seemed to be interested, Betsy sniffed the spot and dismissed it immediately, but I was hoping that if they came face to face with the critter they would have sense enough to somehow let me know. I drove on down the road on the quad while the dogs ran all over the Sage looking for birds. They do cover a lot of ground and I was hoping that on one of their trips back and forth one of them would find it. I was not happy to think of the poor thing out there with a trap on its foot. No chance to survive at all.
I got down the road about a half mile, and did not see Josie. She had been last seen at the end of our fence. It is a place that the Deer like to sleep in as there is quite high Sage and good places to hide. So I began to back track and eventually Josie came down the road looking for me. I was bummed, as I had hoped that she would have the critter bayed up and holding it for me. Her predecessor would have done so, but she was raised differently. I decided to go through the cover anyway just to make sure. I had walked through most of it and was standing there watching the dogs for some sign that the object of my search was here. Josie came around a big bunch of Sage and I heard something strange. I almost dismissed the thought, but decided to check it out. As I rounded the bush I heard a chain rattle. I hurried around expecting to find a Bobcat, but there was a Coon tail sticking out of the bush instead. I had caught it by the hind foot. I am not sure that I could have found it if the trap had been on the front foot.
I called Josie and she was a bit interested, but she had run right by it, and what alerted me was the Coon growling at her as she ran by. It never occurred to her that was what we were looking for. Betsy came by and barely even glanced at it. She apparently doesn't point Coons since they don't fly.
As you can see it is not a very big one, weighing only about 15 pounds. They can get up to 30 or 40 pounds.
So having my nose rubbed in it, I have decided to listen and use a rock drag. I am also using some much more serious steel wire. I cannot explain why I always do things the hard way, apparently it is a pattern that I am not going to break this late in life. Sigh!
