Creepy screams sometimes wake me up in Germany and I learned they are foxes. It's usually an isolated scream followed by creepier-silence. It really keeps me indoors at night.
The only animal I'm really afraid of here is the wild boar, but I've only seen one, mysteriously dead in our field. They're the only species that might be dangerous to humans, but rarely are.
I opened my barn door yesterday and couldn't believe my eyes. A fox had come to die: (
What a gorgeous animal, its coat was multicolored, ticked in white and black. What kills a fox around here!?
We called the ranger and he came right over and explained they become infected with mange and die...until he saw my fox, with a luxurious Winter coat. Huh. He had very little information and I was dying to know if it's Rabies but still no Rabies in Germany, no threat at all, they say. He said, "Still, you should immunize your cat." I argued, "So is there a threat or not? It can't go both ways." Hrm.
He said, "This fox has been here before, he's familiar with your place and came here on purpose."
He looked at Bellis and Mag, looking over the wire at us, and said, "They know what happened!": )
The only thing we can think of is that he was struck by a car and managed to make it to our barn.
There are two new fox holes in the hillside scrubland adjacent to our pasture - either foxes or badgers, not sure. I'm fascinated and stare at them every day, hoping to see the occupants.
I watched a great video today with a fox suffering from mange who was saved by a kind person who tossed him meat laced with ivermectin.
I look forward to snow for one reason this year - to learn to follow fox tracks!
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Michi and her husband came over to take another horse donkey walk and this time J came along.
We went to see the Icelandic herd and that was entertaining as usual, a little too exciting for Mag, who I tied to a tree for our own safety. He was kicking out for "no reason" again, probably the wind chill, I had to leave his Winter blanket on for our walk or else he'd have frozen, but he was still pretty twitchy.
Michi sent me a photo of Bellis saying hi to the herd, and you can see Mag looking unsettled in the background.
To be honest I'm not looking forward to my first ride since September.
Did I tell you Seli moved away, and Anja's latest lease horse is lame - I've never met it.
Recently I contacted someone at a farm close to us (the Haflinger barn where Momo lived) and asked if the lady would like to ride out with me. She declined! Wow it's hard to make friends here.
S1 and I had plans to ride Saturday, and the weather was brisk but calm, and she said it was too cold out to ride, and cancelled on me. So.....*shrug* I'm feeling pretty negative at the moment, to be honest. It might seem like I know a lot of people, but it's not often that they want to ride with me.
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6 comments:
Poor fox. I wonder if he ate poison or a rat that had been poisoned?
I didn't know that Seli moved. Was it far? I know how hard it is to make connections with others in the area. I"ve even been thinking of seeing if I can get people in my area to get together as a 'trail riding' group. Haven't gotten past the speculation phase yet.
Teresa, you gave me a fright but the next door neighbors (with the 20 chickens) have 3 dogs, so I hope they won't think of poison.
Seli moved just far enough away that I'll never ride with her again (20 minutes). No one around here owns horse trailers/towing vehicles. Of all the horse people I know, only one of them has a trailer and she's used it one time in 9 years.
It's a really weird society, where there are horses everywhere but no one trailers to ride.
In fact I found this awesome area to ride adjacent to a rest stop with huge parking spots, and I remembered having a trailer and how if this were America, I'd drive to that rest stop, saddle up, and then ride that gorgeous loop around a watershed. Oddly, at the halfway point around the watershed, there were "no horses allowed" signs, all of a sudden. I thought about it - the signs were at connection trails where horses would hook up with the watershed trail. They simply don't expect anyone to trailer a horse to ride that loop, so there are no signs at all by the enormous parking lot! Amazed, I was, and kind of disgusted. I miss putting my horse in the trailer, driving 10 minutes to a steep mountain I could ride all day and never see a soul.
Odd, fox looks to healthy to just pass like that! Will they do tests to determine reason?
Like Teresa, I immediately thought of rat poison. It's a common way to get rid of "two vermin" at one time here--kill the rat, and kill the fox or coyote that eats the rat, but of course, there's no way to make sure that a pet doesn't eat the rat. We don't use poison here at all, but I've found rats acting weird, and they definitely got into poison.
So sorry that you're alone again for riding. I've been solo most of the summer this year for a variety of reason, mostly I like it, but sometimes we would both like some extra company. I finally have a proper truck again (pending a little re-wiring that Jim has promised to do today) so I can haul out! Wish you were here, it would be so great to ride with you again.
Camryn, that's what I expected, being this is Germany! But...*shrug* Wish I knew. They might have to, but he didn't say, when I asked.
Aarene, I've never seen a rat here. I've seen mouse signs though! And I know the difference between mouse poop and rat, I used to have rats as pets in college (the one I rescued after my UW rat lab).
Thanks for your empathy - I feel lost right now. I'm living on happy memories of home. While appreciating what I have.
What if you tack up and go for a walk? ANd if you decide to get on and ride for a few minutes, it will be a bonus.
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