Little Scare

We were doing our usualy busy stuff yesterday. Adam has a new adventure going. He has taken up trapping. We aren't real fond of the leg snares so he uses a live trap. Just in case you don't know about them, a live trap is basically a square wire cage with a special door. There is a gizmo attached to it so that when a critter walks fully into the cage, it triggers the gizmo and closes and locks the door. Voila`--- caught varmint! Frankly, we don't have much worry of him really catching anything.

This past weekend at the trappers meeting, they showed us how to set it and camoflouge it. Against advice, (of course) Adam decided to bait his with liver rather than just squirt some kind of scent lure in there. He has been cleaning out my freezer by using liver as bait. We don't eat liver, so I don't mind. Besides, some people have to learn the hard way.

Something has been springing the trap and getting the liver. That means that whatever it is, is big enough that it can reach the bait and still have it's back end out of the trap so the door can't close. I suspect it is our Welsh Corgi, Yolo. Adam did find bobcat tracks in the mud nearby.He checks this trap( and rebaits it) at least 3-4 times a day. The dogs are all looking rather slick and well fed.......

 Yesterday afternoon at about 3:00pm, he did his last check. At about 7:30 pm we finished up supper and started kitchen duty. Adam casually asks, " Anybody seen Prissy?" Prissy is our Rat Terrier. She is Salena's baby and we jokingly call her our baby sister.  Out of all of our dogs, she is the only one allowed in the house. She was not in her usual snoozing places, my bed or the laundry. Sometimes she hangs out in my closet but no sign of her. We checked the trucks because she has been known to stow away in there. I called my friend who visited in the late afternoon to make sure that she hadn't hitched a ride home with him. Seth went over to the barn to make sure that we hadn't locked her in the kitchen by mistake. No Prissy. It was cold so if she was outside, she would be at the door shivering to be let in. No Prissy, anywhere.

I started quizzing the boys about her last known sighting. Adam had seen her when he last checked his trap....... Oh my! Neil and Adam suited up and took the flashlight and headed off into the deep woods. There was our girl, waiting patiently in the trap for us to come and get her. Neil joked and said that he wasn't sure if she was trapped or the bait....... After her release, she dashed straight to the house.  She had liver breath........