REFLECTIONS FROM THE REARVIEW
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ

Predators

1/18/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
We live in the midst of nature. Sometimes nature lives amongst us. I am reminded of this when I hear a scream calling me to come and squish a spider. I don’t mind spiders. Mice however, are a thing with me. We seem to get them seasonally in the pantry. The entry point, I am not sure except that it seems a mouse can enter through a hole as small as a dime. On a contractor radio show, I heard that 80% of homes have mice. They will likely be inside your walls but you won’t see them unless there is a ready food source drawing them to come to inside the house. Hence, all the food in our pantry is in sealed glass or plexiglass containers. I don’t like mice at all. They carry disease and leave their droppings everywhere along with a strange odour. Forget the glue traps and the “relocate” strategy. The only solution for me is an old fashioned mousetrap holding a very dead mouse. Dead works. The mouse won’t be a problem after that. 

I recall in our old house, we had a playhouse I eventually tore down. When I removed the steps, a family of mice was underneath, a whole nest of about a dozen baby mice. They stared up at me dumbfounded and momentarily frozen. Instinctively, I brought my boot down on the nest and destroyed them all, while the lady next door screamed and screamed. I thought she was screaming from fear of the mice but it seems she thought I was a monster for killing the mice. 

This is a head scratcher for me. That, and people who feed uninvited critters like racoons and squirrels. They don’t get it that these are wild animals. Squirrels are friendly enough, but they will chew through the wiring in your house in short order if they find a port of entry. Racoons look fluffy and cute, but they instinctively will bite your nose clean off as first tactic if encountered up close. If you doubt this, look up racoon attacks on Google. Coyotes are another predator that is becoming common. They lose their shine a bit after they eat the family dog for lunch. And yet, people still feed them. 

It’s that knee-jerk reaction that some people have to incursions from unwelcome parties. “They are innocent. They don’t mean any harm. We have invaded their habitat”. Think that, and you will soon be overrun in ways you don’t like. I don’t give any quarter to interlopers. If you invite them they will come, and then you will have to figure out how to get rid of them once they are established. 

There are things which attract animals. Back yard ponds are one of them. We had one for a season on special request of my wife. I buried an old bathtub and bought a pump. It was cute for a while, but you quickly run into problems with the pond getting slimy and green if you don’t treat it, as the water is on a closed cycle. It will also bring skunks and other varmints. 

That following spring, my brother was looking out the patio door. The snow had just begun to melt and we had not been in the back yard all winter. “Did you know you have a dead racoon in your pond?” he asked. I laughed. I thought he was joking. Then I looked out the back door, and sure enough there was a grand daddy of a racoon slumped over the edge of the pond, dead. it was huge. It had likely ingested some kind of poison and gone out looking for water… found our pond and then died in it. 

My first reaction was to call the city, but my brother warned me off. “They will think you did something to the racoon. It’s like a murder scene. When you find a body, you are the first suspect” he said. I thought it over. I didn’t want any problems from bureaucrats. Still, when you find a body, disposal is your own problem. Thinking about the possibility for disease and wishing I had a hazmat suit, I double gloved, and cut up the rubber liner, and removed the pond along with the brackish water. The racoon was truly huge. I didn’t know they could grow so big. I had to double bag its corpse in a contractor sized garbage bag, then go and scour my hands with disinfectant. Getting rid of the body made me feel like I was living an episode of The Sopranos. I had to find a surreptitious spot off the side of the road, where I could pull over, go into the woods a bit and bury the body. Motorists driving by stared at me when I went into the woods dragging an oversized garbage bag and carrying a shovel, at dusk. I wondered if anybody would call the cops. 

Animals where you don’t want them, are inconvenient. And yet you run into interference if you broker the idea of getting rid of them. It’s the confusion of priorities, whether human or animal wins out. I am sure if you are of a generous nature, rats, mice, racoons and squirrels would love to invade your home. You can add bears to the list if you live in the country. They don’t need much more than a ready food source, and enough contact with humans to make them bold. Canada Geese are a great example of how a wild animal becomes a horrible blight. Because they are protected, they have lost their natural fear of human beings. Artificially empowered, they hiss and attack if you get too close. They befoul any park or nature area where they encamp and it makes me wonder how they would be if they were again legal to hunt. Maybe the natural barrier between wild animal and human being would be reestablished just like the old adage about good fences making good neighbours. It reminds me of a waiter in Florida who brought an alligator steak to my table. “Just goes to show you there ain’t nothing a shotgun won’t tame”, he quipped. He was not getting his predator priorities mixed up it seems. 

But we do in Canada. When I saw a coyote strolling through the green area behind our home, I called the city. I thought they would bring someone to kill the coyote. Seems I was wrong. They will put up signs in your neighbourhood, to warn you that yes, coyotes are dangerous but they will not further protect you. You are truly on your own. The lady who answered my query asked me. “Is the coyote hurt?”. “Not yet”, I said. “It might be if I had a gun”. The lady was not amused. She told me that taking matters into your own hands was illegal. Her bureau only HELPED predators, if they were injured or sick. It seems she also had her priorities mixed up. 

I have seen the same phenomenon in criminal courts. The head scratching that comes up when predators escape a halfway house and reoffend. They outfoxed the social workers and said what was necessary to get paroled, so that they could recommit the kind of crimes that got them in trouble in the first place. The judicial system would like to reform them, but it is not that simple once a person had become a predator. 

Robert Hare, a Canadian psychiatrist, has written a book called “Without a Conscience” about serial offenders and psychopaths. He notes that as much as ten percent of the population are psychopaths, and predators. They live amongst us. We don’t detect them because we think of the caricature of a psychopath as carrying an axe and chopping people up. It seems that they are better disguised than that. They also come in all shapes and sizes and in all walks of life. Chances are if you think back, you have dealt with a romantic partner or a boss who was a predator, and you found out the hard way. Knowing your predators is a good life skill. 

How people get that way is puzzling. Chances are you can remember the kids in your neighbourhood who seemed a bit “off”. I remember coming back from the creek with a bucket of minnows. A neighbourhood kid laughed, poured them on the lawn, and promptly ran over them with a push mower. The same kid used to torture cats, tying firecrackers to their tails. Good chance he grew up to be a predator. 

I recall court sketching at a criminal case in Calgary where a kid sixteen years old and barely shaving, had chopped up his parents with an axe. It was the usual story, a ne’er do well who quit school and couldn’t keep a job because he didn’t like getting bossed around. One night he just walked upstairs where his parents were sleeping, and chopped them up, then went downstairs and ate a sandwich. There was so much blood on the walls, the police initially assumed that the weapon was a shotgun. The most disturbing evidence was the mother had a lot of defensive wounds. She had not died easily He had killed her methodically after first disbatching his father, the one most likely to stop him. In court, he had a blank and disinterested look in his face the whole time. He was likely bored and wondering when it would be lunch. 

Of course, the best defence against predators in general, is to recognize them, and not allow them into your lives. The other defence is to not harbour any false illusions about how to rehabilitate them. Some people just have a talent for evil, and you might find out the hard way. 

In our old house, my kids started complaining to me about scratching noises in the ceiling. I could hear them too. Going up into the attic with a flashlight, I shone the beam in and saw a row of eyes on the other end. Racoons. We had racoons living in our attic. When I called the animal control people, their price was usurious. I decided to take matters into my own hands and brought home a live capture trap, the kind of cage where the animal enters and the door swings shut behind them. The idea is to relocate the animals still alive, to a place in the country. I have to admit I had other ideas bouncing around in my brain. 

I baited the trap with bacon, sardines, peanut butter, all manner of things that would attract the racoons. Every single day they would eat the bait without springing the trap. It seems I would have to employ another method than a trap. Reading up on racoons, it seems they are nocturnal. They sleep during the day and then roam about at night when you are sleeping. This, you can use against them because racoons like other predators will only stick around if they like your diggs. If you create an environment hostile to their interests, they will leave. 

Seems that like teenagers, racoons like to sleep in. They don’t want to be disturbed. And so… I put a ghetto blaster in the attic and put it on a loop with an Usher CD that my daughter had. Every day when we left for work and school, I would put on Usher, full blast. Soon, the noises in the attic ceased. It seems the racoons moved off and found some other place where it was quieter to sleep during the day. It was a bloodless victory. 

It’s nice if your predator problems can be carried out as smoothly as that, but fact is, a predator is called a predator for a reason and your worst dreams in life will be awakened if you somehow inadvertently invite them. It’s the old folk-lore about vampires only getting past your doorway if you unwittingly ask them in. There’s a reason that advice has stood the test of time. Don’t mix up your priorities. Predators, human or animal, are not your friends and recognizing them up front will make your life easier. 

Still, I have a soft spot for the racoons. Seems they don’t like loud rap music, and that makes them just a little bit better in my books. Sorry, Usher. 
Coyote catching mouse as seen in our back field.
0 Comments

    UNCOMMON
    ​THOUGHTS

    ...about common things. 
    ​

    Categories

    All
    Accidental Story
    Activist
    Adjusting The Recipe
    Adult Admission
    A Flannery O'Connor Moment
    After The Tiger
    A High Christology
    A Little Bit Redneck
    All About Widgets
    Allah Wallahi
    Al Low Vs The Man
    All Saints
    A Long List Of Thank Yous
    Amazing Grace
    A Month Of Sundays
    An Offer You Can’t Refuse
    Antique
    A Pile Of Wood And A Plan
    Are We There Yet?
    Artifact
    At Hand
    Attending To Beauty
    At War
    Bad-Ass Outlaw
    Bad Faith
    Badlands
    Baked Boiled Or Fried?
    Balcony Lady
    Beautiful By Design
    Beauty For Ashes
    Being Human
    Belial
    Beneficence
    Beware Of Men Who Cry
    Big Buts Of The Bible
    Blessed Are The Pew Warmers
    Bound For Beauty
    British Invasion
    Bronte Oak
    Bucket List
    But If Not
    But Is It Sandable
    But Is It True?
    Buyer Beware
    Camp Of The Unknown God
    Carlton The Delivery Man
    Chaos
    Cherry Top
    Class Monitors And Safety Patrols
    Clothing Optional
    Cloud Of Witnesses
    Contra Mundum
    Couldn't Not
    Counting The Cost
    Covid Cut
    Creed
    Crucified Man
    Dangerous
    Dangerous Chemicals Of My Youth
    Dieu Et Mon Droit
    Different Drum
    Distressed
    Doing The Lord's Work
    Do It Yourself
    Do-Over
    Do Something!
    Dreaming And Doing
    Edifice
    Egging Armour Hill
    Even As I Am Known
    Even Me
    Even Stranger Things
    Fallow Season
    Family Bible
    Family Business
    Fellowship Of The Brush
    Field Of Faith
    First World Chair
    Fit As You Go
    Fixing The Machine
    Flawed People
    Flock Of Angels
    Follow The Money
    For A Time Such As This
    Fortissimo!
    French Horn
    From A Distance
    Frozen Man
    Funny Words
    Genetic Lottery
    Gifting
    Global
    Good Bones
    Good God Almighty
    Good Government
    Good Luck Skippy
    Gott Mit Uns
    Greatest Is Love
    Gross Anatomy
    Grunt
    Haka!
    Hammer And Tong
    Hands And Eyes
    Happy Rooster
    Hearing Voices
    Hello My Juan
    Helping God Show Off
    Hidden In The Secret Place
    High Dudgeon
    History Bites
    Hockey Tape And Rubber Bands
    Holy Disorder
    Home Economics
    I AM
    I Cannot Help You
    I Could Be Wrong
    I Dare You
    Idiots
    If You Build It
    If You Get There Before I Do
    Im Khalil
    Impossibly Cute
    In A Strange Land
    Incarnation
    Influencer
    In My Own Time
    Inner FIfteen Year Old
    In The Details
    In The Usual Manner
    Invader
    Judge Not
    Just A Few Words
    Justice
    Just In Our Own Time
    Just Like God
    Keep Calm And...
    Keeper
    Keeping House
    Keeping On Keeping On
    KJV
    Knock Yourself Out
    Kumbaya
    Kybo
    Lamentations
    Lemonade
    Less Is More
    Let Me Count The Ways
    Let's Go RIde A BIke
    Linked In
    Little Boxes
    Liturgy
    Lo And Behold
    Logos
    LOL
    Looking Back On The Forward Looking
    Looking For Some Real Good News
    Lord Jesus It’s A FIRE
    Lorem-ipsum-dolor
    Lost-and-found
    Luck Of The Stable
    Magical
    Make-a-baby-laugh
    Make It Nice
    Maker
    Maker’s Mark
    Ma-pitom
    Marbles-in-spring
    Measure Of A Man
    Memory Box
    Men In Loincloths
    Men's Barber Shop
    Middle Ground
    Middleman
    Mistakes All In
    Montreal Spice
    More
    Morse Code
    Mosh Pit
    My Neighbour
    Myth Of Sisyphus
    My Wife The Movie Star
    Name Calling
    Natural
    Neighbour
    New Day
    New Wine
    Next To Godliness
    Next Year Country
    No Fancy Diagram Needed
    No King But Caesar
    None Deserving
    North Of Ground Level
    Nothing Particularly Important
    Nothing Personal
    Not Waiting For Godot
    No Wonder
    Oak
    One Coffee At A Time
    One Smart Farmer
    One Thing
    On Richard Rohr
    On The Lam
    On Writing Clearly
    Ordinary Time
    Out Of Egypt
    Over And Again
    Paint Over That
    Paper Boy
    Particularity
    Particulate Matter
    Part Of The Tradition
    Pater Noster
    Patina
    Pelagian
    Perfect
    Perfect Crime
    Perfect Ride
    Philosemite
    Pilate's Dilemma
    Pinky Swear
    Place At The Table
    Playing Favourites
    Pop-a-corn!
    Potato War
    Preaching Parrot
    Predators
    Prince
    Print Shop
    Prisoner Of Jesus Christ
    Proof Text
    Psalm 1
    Psalm 19
    Put Away The Books
    Putting Up The Lights
    Reduce Reuse Recycle
    Restoration
    Rosemary And The Drug Dealers
    Sandwich
    Say My Name
    Scars
    Second Naiveté
    Seeing Red
    Seven Sixty-Five
    Shouting From The Areopagus
    Shrove-tuesday
    Silent-witness
    Small-c
    Small-graces
    Sore-afraid
    Squat
    Starting With What Is True
    Street Food
    Superstar
    Take-a-punch
    Takedown
    Talking-head
    Talking Your Parents Down From The Ledge
    Telling-the-story
    Thanksgiving
    The-best-for-last
    The Bliss Of Ignorance
    The Church Invisible
    Thecrossingking
    The Evil Day
    The-general
    The Great Mystery
    The-joys-of-hash
    Themysteryofthecheshirecat
    The-particularity-of-place
    The-quickening
    Therefore-choose-life
    The Table-ness Of A Table
    The Way
    Though One Be Raised From The Dead
    Thoughts On Sixty
    Three Jews And A Gentile
    Thrice Wise
    Throwing The Spaghetti Against The Wall
    Timeless
    Time Vs Time
    Tim Falladay
    Tims No More
    Tonto And Me
    Touching Stones
    Trevor’s Super Bad Day
    Trick Key
    Tubafore!
    Unbelievable
    Under A Bush? HELL NO!
    Uninvited
    Unspectacular
    Use Gently
    Watching Paint Dry
    Wayside Chapel
    Weaker Sex (?)
    We Stand On Guard For Thee
    We Were Waiting
    What Are You Prepared To DO?
    What Lazarus Knew
    When Cows Fly
    When Odd Becomes Interesting
    Why I Still Like Cowboys
    Witness
    Woke
    Wood Show
    Woodworking Lessons In Empathy
    Words
    Words... The Right Tool
    Worthy Adversary
    You And Me And Rob

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit
Picture
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ