The Wild Life.........

Some of you are aware of ............

.... all the trapping that Poppa has done this year.  I believe he has captured a total of 11 skunks, 5 raccoons and 2 squirrels.  Once there is a prospective client in the trap, if the client is a skunk, he throws a blanket over the trap (carefully).  This is supposed to disable the inhabitant from seeing him and thus preventing the malodorous explulsion of spray.  Poppa has only been sprayed once - we're not sure if the skunk had unusually good eye-sight or if Poppa was a little slow tossing the blanket on - but the results were extremely unpleasant and long-lasting.  Every time it rained for the rest of that year, there was hint of eau de skunk in the truck.  Anyway, after carefully dropping the blanket over the trap (this is not necessary for racoons - and he just lets the squirrels go right away), he loads it.......

 ...into the back of the truck......

......takes a long drive in the country............where he waits patiently for the critter to make its escape so he can take the trap home......

.... and clean it again in readiness for the next hapless critter who wanders in.  Recently he had set the trap at Aunt Peggy's since she seemed to have unidentified critters trying to make a home under her sunroom.  When he went to check it out, the trapdoor was closed but there was nobody inside.  On closer examination he discovered that the trap was badly mangled and broken and the door was bent.  After much discussion and scrutiny, Poppa and Kev-Inn concluded that a much larger and stronger varmint had been exploring the possiblity of a fish and peanut butter dinner.  Then, not hungry any longer but now wanting a nap - this aforementioned varmint discovered much to his dismay, that he could not get out.  They assume he quickly became angry enough to struggle until he managed to force the door open sufficiently to squeeze through and escape.  There were traces of varmint blood found on the trap, so he did not escape completely unscathed.  Thus, the conclusion was that it was probably a fox, coyote or other larger related species as opposed to the normal skunks or raccoons.  Whatever it was...........

.... Poppa had to do some work to straighten all the wires...........

.... and then he had to take the trap to his workshop and actually weld it back together again!  Eventually, after several hours of fixing and testing...........

.... it was once again ready to re-set...........he placed it carefully in Poppa's park - where he had encountered some evidence of varmint activity..........