Could It Be?

When I went to the chicken yard this morning to let my Wonder Girls out, and I came across some skat. For you city folk skat is animal poop. I’d seen this same scat maybe a week or two ago in my path (remember we’ve been covered in 2-3 ft of snow for several weeks so I have paths). When I came across it then, I knew it wasn’t Little Lady’s poop. Hers is small and she’s been doing most of it by the back door so we can step in it on the way to our cars!

No, this skat (poop) was bigger and darker and different. I remember noting to myself to be on the lookout for a dog that’s running when I saw it in my path…again Lady’s been the only one pooping in my paths and it’s been quite fun dodging all of it, her and the lone rabbit living under the shed…but his poop is easy to detect…little pellets. We don’t have any running dogs anymore, and I haven’t seen any even in the last couple of weeks. Day or night. Whatever is dropping scat is doing it after dark. That I’m sure of.

My chicken yard is still covered in 2 ft of snow making it a pretty easy task of scaling the 4 ft fence. Besides, the snow has pulled the fence down in places and it’s sagging. My first guess was my gaping gate. Nope. Whatever it is, scaled over the fence where it could climb upon the snow and slip over the fence without much fuss.

I did a head count and thought that whatever this predator was it took my Hobble Girl. She got under my feet one day and I stepped on her poor little foot and ever since she’s been known as Hobble because I think I broke a couple toes. She doesn’t seem to mind but she does stay in the coop longer in the morning and those cold snowy mornings her poor little toes were curled up and she had trouble walking. I feel really awful about that Little Red Hen, but she’s a sport and manages.

So, anyway, back to the skat. I thought poor little Hobble took the fate of Abigail Adams since she was the weakest, but when I went back for pictures of the skat, there she was! I was pretty happy to see little Hobble.

Oh right the skat. I called DNR and asked them if it’s possible for a black bear to be in our area and he said it was not unlikely. Now, I’m not saying it was a black bear or it wasn’t at this point, I’m just sayin. We chatted about what I saw and what the skat looked like and how it smelled.  Yeah, I had my nose in skat! I stirred it around with a stick and it just didn’t smell or look like dog poo. AND Lady rolled in it. I don’t know of a dog rolling in other dogs poop. She stayed away from Boomer’s with a 10′ pole.

It’s mostly grassy/woody/twiggy, with some seeds (and since we’ve been covered in snow…where did a dog get grass to eat) (I’d show you the pictures but I took them with my phone and I have no clue how to put them on here). One seed pod looked like it could be an oat seed. The DNR guy told me that bears are herbivores by nature and it would likely (if it is a bear) be after the corn and feed, not my chickens. Sure enough something’s been coming in at night and finishing off the corn. My guess was that it was a squirrel, but that aint’ no squirrel poop. His other guess, however he didn’t think so was a Coyote. Coyotes are known to be in the area…even in towards the city more.

But now it’s got me wondering….could it be a bear? The DNR guy thought that there would be more physical evidence with some roughness going on. Mostly everything is still covered with snow and the feed is locked up in buckets with Gamma lids inside the coops. And my coops are so tight they hold water! Well, I’m wondering about the security system I’ve got goin on. I use lots of bungy cords for everything. They just work for me. But I’m thinking if a bear wanted in that coop he’d break a window and rip off a bungy cord holding the nesting box lid down, which is only intended for a racoon.  I’m gonna lock um up tight tonight….they’re blessing me with 10 eggs a day, even in this God forsaken weather. Good girls!

I am a bit worried about my Bovine Girls….will a black bear bother them? They’ve been so cooped up in the barn/barnyard and not wondering out in the 2 feet of snow, I guess, they’ll kick if they have to.

It was hard to see any tracks. Praise God, we’ve been having warmer weather in the 40′s and a lot of these snow glaciers have been melting. Plus we’ve had rain for a couple days including last night. So, now we’re going to be on the look out for a bear or a big dog who has no stinky poo.

Now we watch and wait. I’m planning to put out some bait…apples and corn. But a dog would eat that as well, especially our old Lab he loved corn and apples!

In Honey’s former life, he was a Wildlife Biologist….that’s what he has his Master’s in, so he will know for sure, but he’s been in a meeting all day long… hopefully he’ll be able to pick through his computer guy brain cells and find some wildlife brain cells (that guy has more in his brain then I  could hope for in a lifetime!). Too bad I didn’t preserve the crime scene. It really didn’t occur to me that it was possibly a bear when I let the chickens out…then they walked all over the tracks….I guess there goes my career with CSI!

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Well, maybe I would be a pretty good CSI. After spending my entire day on the mystery…..now I’m thinkin this critter is a raccoon….I know I can hear you now…you wanted a bear! Me too! The prints in the snow are destinctively with deep claw marks in the snow, close together and the skat did have a blunt end with woody/stems/grass/seeds….at least that’s my recollection….you know how these things go….the longer we wait the least we remember and the longer our fish stories become!

If I tell you NOT to think about a pink elephant in a to-too dancing in ballet slippers. And what did you just think about??? I know, we are just mere humans we can’t help ourselves…well, anyway, at least it gave me something to do today…I’ll still set some bait out and I hope that critter leaves my chickens alone….my poor Sis in California, had her chicken’s heads torn clean off by a raccoon and it scared her for life.

Maybe next time we’ll get a bear!

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Honey didn’t get home till pretty late (those meetings really eat up his day) so I didn’t drag him out to look at the skat. He listened intently to my story…of course and I’m sure you can tell, I do love to tell stories….if you like mine, my Sis J, tells stories that make me roll over in pain….anyway, it really didn’t take a computer science degree holding guy to convince me that if it had been a bear, the bear would not of politely climbed over the fence and left the gate intact. He would of ripped the gate clean off it’s electrical tie hinges!

Man, it was fun for a day thinking I had a bear!

P.S. The really fun thing about telling stories now is that my brain is no longer infected and I CAN! When I woke up from my “coma” it was so good to be alive again and to have my brain alive!

I saw an old sampler (hand stitchery) in a shop one time and I could kick myself for not buying it….it said, “When I awoke there was a lot of dust on life.” Perfect! It described me so well. Maybe I didn’t get it because I was still “asleep”.

NOTE: “Coma” is used figuratively for the way I felt…either that or “Brain Dead”…..either way, I hated that state of being and I’m so grateful to be alive! Thank you Lord!