Critter Country

With the combination of the warm weather this week and garbage night, encounters with wildlife were in the offing. Before I relate tonight's excitement, I'll backtrack and reveal my brush with three deer. I had noticed three deer feeding in a pasture twice on my way to work. This particular area is forested with a lake, and is apparently teeming with animals. Anyway, I am always careful to go only about 45 in this area. This caution paid off when all of a sudden three deer appeared in the road ahead of me. Luckily I was driving with my brights on, otherwise I don't know that I would have seen them in time. I slowed down almost to a stop. One deer went back to the left of the road, and the other two went ahead and crossed the road to the right. These must have been the same deer that I had seen before.

Then tonight not far from that same area an opossum appeared on the road in front of me. He just stared at me and kind of ran aimlessly on the road. I stopped and waited, and just when I was about ready to give up and try to go around him, he ran off the side of the road. I don't know if my headlights blinded him for a few seconds or what, but he sure didn't seem to be afraid of me.

I got home, and upon sitting down at my computer in the basement I heard a scratching at the window. Uh oh, I wonder what animal it is this time. Last year I had to rescue a baby rabbit and several toads from our window well, and so tonight was no surprise. I opened the blinds, and there was a little critter staring at me. I say little critter because I'm not sure what it was. It reminded me of a ferret, but its adolescence made it difficult to identify (I hope it wasn't a rat!). I've included a picture of it. Butterbut jumped up on the window ledge, and I'm not sure who was more excited, Butterbut or the critter. The critter actually wasn't afraid of Butters, as he even leaned up against the window as Butterbut stared with eyes wide open and tail wagging. At some point the critter climbed up the window screen, but the screen is not high enough to enable him to get up out of the well.

After watching the critter for five minutes it was pretty clear he wasn't going to be able to escape on his own, so I ventured outside. At first I placed a slender board into the well, hoping that the critter would use it to climb out. Not being the smartest of critters, he ignored the board. I gave up on the board and went to my tried and true method of window well animal rescue-the bucket and the stick. I was afraid that the critter might crawl up my leg and bite me, so I wore gloves. I jumped down, and the critter went into the corner and played dead. I then used the stick to tap him out of the corner. This got him excited, and he circled me faster than I could easily follow. I smelled something, so he must have let loose with another natural defense mechanism. He was so fast that I was getting nowhere in trying to coax him into the bucket. But I saw my chance when he climbed up the window screen. I nudged him into the bucket and turned the bucket sideways outside of the well. The critter wasted no time in fleeing the bucket.