I fed a little early this morning and caught 4 little coyotes in the turn-out just having the time of their lives. They were rolling in manure, eating it, pooping in it, and rolling in the dirt. They had a big stick that they were playing with, which made me realize where all the toys and missing fly masks have gone. Duh!!!
So I decided to go on a scavenger hunt today and see if I could find any of my loot. (Missing items include a big red jolly bally, a small blue jolly ball with rope, soccar ball, basket ball and at least 3 fly masks.)
I actually caught the little rascals sleeping under a mesquite tree, along with the blue ball and rope, soccar ball (totally destroyed) and one of the fly masks (also totally destroyed.)
It's bad enough paying good money for masks and toys that Buddy destroys, but I didn't plan on financing coyote kindergarten as well.
Oh well, I guess the way to "make lemonade" would be to get my infrared camera set up and at least get some fun pictures of them playing with the stuff.
Dixie Mom
"The art of riding: Keeping a horse between you and the ground!"
No, the missing socks would fall into the pack rat category. Another one moved into our garage and has hauled in everything he can carry to make his nest -hand tools, paper, fabric, an empty spray paint can, toilet paper roll, mesquite beans - and of course pieces of cactus from outside. It's a mess. I'm sure there are probably socks in there as well. No sooner do you get rid of one and clean up the mess, that another pne moves in and starts all over. Cute little guys, but very annoying. They can destroy all the wiring in a car engine in one night. ----------
Dixie Mom
"The art of riding: Keeping a horse between you and the ground!"
Well, these pups are pretty bold! I see their tracks right up to the barn and chicken house. The day they start stealing tack and brushes out of the barn will be the day I'll............darn it - I don't know what I'll do.
The big daddy coyote is quite a character, as well. He sits on the road outside my neighbor's house every morning, just barking and howling his head off. The neighbor's have a bout 20 rescue dogs that are in the house at night, and this coyote just torments them every single morning until they are let out. He's done this nearly every day that we've lived here (4 years.) It's a hoot.
I ran out of fly masks - again! So another search of the desert behind our place turned up 3 of my masks, fortunately all still usable, although obviously well mouthed. 2 are still missing that I know of. Little scoundrels! I never thought I'd desensitize my equines to coyote scent by putting coyote slobbered masks on them! ----------
Dixie Mom
"The art of riding: Keeping a horse between you and the ground!"
We do have also coyotes. I hate them, they always try to attrack my dogs, one of them just love to run after them and I am always woried that they will get him. My husband wants to shoot them, but I do not hate them that much!
I have my 3 dogs for stealing all the horses balls and other toys. Sometimes they will get it rite from the horse's mouth!!! I actually have a picture of one horse, my son and a dog trying to get at a big plastic basket! all three of them have the mouth or an hand on the it!
I guess there is nothing left for the coyotes to play with!
I moved a hay tarp today and found that a pack rat has been piling dry mesquite beans under it - he has about a gallon or so of beans so far. Last year, a pack rat chewed a hole in a bag of pellets. In one night, he managed to move about 20 pounds of pellets out of the bag and up onto a storage shelf where he had them all neatly piled in a box of miscellaneous hardware. ----------
Dixie Mom
"The art of riding: Keeping a horse between you and the ground!"
We do not have rats but mice. They love to get their nest in my husband's quad. Also obviously in the hay, because of them, a good majority of the hay turn white around the hole they had made. That was one of the reason that my poor Diego got sick (heaves), I had not seen the nest.
Here's a link that describes a packrat. They make the most amazing nests - usually part is underground, but then they fortify it with a huge mound of junk - horse manure, sticks, rocks, lots of cactus. They have little runs that go between nests, and will line the edges with pieces of cactus. Some of their runs look like little highways.
Anyway, they can move into a garage, barn, or car engine in just one night. They are very industrious and will move in a huge amount of junk in a very short time. If they get into an engine, they can completely chew up the wiring in just hours. They often have one area of the nest for food storage, and another area for the living quarters. Like I've described before, they will drag anything they can move into their nests. I've found hand tools, a license plate, nuts and bolts, keys, kids toys (one got into a bag of Leggos in our garage - what a mess!), you name it, they will manage to get it to their nest if there is anyway possible. I left a long lunge line outside on the ground one night, and they chewed off the big brass clip and the heavy rubber end and carried the pieces off.
We once tried to trap one that moved into our garage. We'd clean out the nest, set the traps, and he'd move all the junk back every night and clean off the traps without getting caught. My husband finally came up with the winning bait - a big shiny paper clip instead of food. The greedy rat couldn't resist the paper clip and went to rat heaven (is there such a place?) that night.
I've always thought the CSI TV show should have an episode where a packrat steals the evidence - like the shell casings or the knife. :)
Archeologically, packrat middens have been used to date old Native American sites and to identify the plants and foods during ancient times. Some of the rat middens have been in continual use for over 1,000 years, and they are a wealth of information because of the seeds and plant material that was incorporated into the nests. Ancient artifacts like stone beads and arrowheads have also been found in the nests.
So they are actually quite interesting little creatures, but very annoying and destructive if they move into human dwellings. ----------
Dixie Mom
"The art of riding: Keeping a horse between you and the ground!"
