Predators

I have always loved critters and visiting zoos is one of my favorite things to do. At one time I considered becoming a vet but knew I could not take seeing suffering animals. I once responded to a job interview at the University of South Alabama where an ad stated they needed someone to care for assorted animals. It was a medical training lab that had animals in all states of experimentation. Some had wires attached to exposed brains. The cat room got to me the most. Cage upon cage of beautiful cats crying out to me, reaching with soft paws through the bars of their prisons pleading with me to rescue them. I was told that some were used for training in surgery and the others would be drained of blood to use to keep the others alive. At that moment I wanted to just bomb the place. I left there crying so hard that I had to sit awhile in my car to stop shaking. Yes, I dissected a cat in high school biology and found it interesting....I even think I could work in pathology with deceased humans but don't leave me with someone or something moaning and suffering. I completely lose it. Poor George, he said God help him if he gets hurt and has to depend on me to stop the blood flow.

So, this is why I have a hard time with the predators killing my chickens. They are not evil mean creatures. They are just hungry. No different from us killing chickens or cows to eat. We have caught many a predator in our live traps and then taken them far away to be released in another wooded area. It's just harder because some of these crazy chickens have such a personality and I have raised them from hatching out of the incubator. Possums and raccoons are the chicken killers and thank God we haven't had killer dogs around....that is with the exception of my Catahoula which has red wolf in her blood line so it's a given. The chicken snakes eat the eggs. Luther and Mrs. Luther occasionally show up and eat some eggs and scare the dickens out of me when I find them in the hen house. But because they eat mice we protect them and tolerate them. George will catch and play with them then put them in the barn.

 

Two possums.....

 



One mean raccoon.......

 



And one spoiled Catahoula Leopard Dog......

 



Hobo is one of the farm cats and brings me mice all the time....he thinks the chickens belong to him and will often follow them around watching over them. He's a super cat!

A day of hatching chicks....so much fun to check the incubator to see what color has hatched!!