When we lived in New Hampshire, we had lots of wildlife on our property. It was always neat to look out the window and see the deer, turkeys and the occasional bear. I never had the urge to trap and relocate them. (Well, there was that time I trapped a chipmunk inside the bird feeder)
Here in Texas, I take a different view. And, believe it or not, but it all started with kittens. Yep, kittens. Steve came home one evening and found 3 kittens eating out of Diesel’s food dish. While they were cute, they were wild. It seemed simple enough to discourage them – stop leaving dog food out at night. But there was one kitten who just wouldn’t give up. I started catching glimpses of it during the day and would hear muted meows from under Waldo. Driven by hunger and the thought of a free meal, the kitten started becoming bolder…
And bolder…
As you can see, Diesel didn’t seem to have any problem sharing his meal. But then, the kitten thought it would just move in… Um….NO!
I don’t mind cats, but I have no interest in having any more pets. Nor do I have the ambition to tame a feral kitten. It had to go! There was an animal trap in the maintenance garage. Since dog food was obviously kitty’s favorite free lunch, I baited the trap. I stepped into Waldo, for all of about 3 minutes, and heard the trap spring. Resulting in one very unhappy kitty…
Since Steve had said he saw 3 kittens, I decided to reset the trap overnight. With my morning coffee in hand, I checked the trap. What I wasn’t expecting was this…
An equally unhappy possum! With both kitty and Mr. Possum relocated (still within the park, just away from us) I thought we were critter free, and returned the trap. But alas…
“Where’s lunch, meow” Really?!?!?! Back the the maintenance garage! This time kitty went for a long ride! Now it resides on a farm about 5 miles down the road.
With all of the critters re-homed, I think we are in the clear. But, you never know! There are lots of interesting things living in the park. I walked out of the office one day and found this…
Another day, I found a wolf spider, carrying all her babies…
I almost missed the katydid…
Sometimes I just ride around the park looking for critters…
I definitely think the snapping turtle was “barking up the wrong tree”. You truly never know what you are going to come across. Yesterday, I was out kayaking with a friend and spotted this…
This billy goat watched us until we rounded the point, as if daring us to try and dock on HIS ground. And he was waiting for us when we came back…
No critters were harmed in the writing of this post, with one exception. My final critter encounter ended in the untimely demise of a black widow spider…
I just can’t have her living in the wood pile. Since she seemed very protective of her egg sac, I felt it was unlike she would move on of her own accord.
What kinds of critters have you encountered?
The Wandering RVer 
You have beautiful photos of the critters (even the spiders, which give me the weebie-jeebies). My favorite is the doe! The little kitten would have been hard to relocate, but I definitely know it had to be done. I’m a critter person, so I find all of these amazing!
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Thank you. There are close to 75 deer here in the park and I’ve been out photographing them at least once a week. The fawns are my favorite, so playful. I wish the was a shelter here I could have taken the kitten too but I think it’ll be happy as a barn cat.
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Never a dull moment for you, Steve and Diesel! Sounds like you are well settled and fully enjoying your new digs! But remember we miss you up North.
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We are having a great time! Lots of new things to see. We miss you too.
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When I was a boy there was a feral cat we called Chomps that hung around the house and one day she had kittens. I tried to pet them just once and by the time it was over I felt lucky to still have skin left on my arms.
I hope the hurricane didn’t harm your area. That possum looks a little damp!
It looks like an early fall here. For the first time I can remember I’ve had to run the furnace in early September. 42 degrees yesterday morning!
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We were far enough north that we weren’t really affected by Harvey (except for the gas prices). It’s too early for the furnace!
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Oh my goodness all you need is a partridge in a pear tree and you will have everything covered! Having recently had a skunk under our house in inner city Calgary I am with you on this critter control theme. The photos of the chipmunk in the bird feeder is hilarious. There’s a natural consequence ot being greedy I’d say.
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Yes, we have lots of critters here. I know there are skunks but, luckily, I haven’t seen them up close! Chippy was very grateful when I let him out!
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Ah, I think you should have kept the kitty and taught him how to walk on a leash. And maybe you could have had a pet opossum too!
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Diesel obviously didn’t mind sharing his meal with kitty, but he’d draw the line at leash sharing!
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