Snatched from the jaws... now my feet are bleeding.

[Windy Ridge]

Does anyone have experience with trapping foxes? I just ran down the mountain in my bare feet through nettles and multiflora to snatch one of my pullets from the jaws of death.

It actually could have been a bobcat. I was not ten feet from it, and it seems crazy that I wouldn't be absolutely sure, but it was a brownish, greyish streak. I only though of bobcat afterwards because we've seen them around here before, and I didn't remember seeing a bushy tail.

So... I may have charged a bobcat hellbent, barehanded and barefoot. My feet are bleeding now, and so is my leg. I partially levitated over the barbed wire, but apparently not high enough.

The pullet, Evelyn, lost feathers, but appears to be all right. I have her separated in our hospital coop with antibiotics. She was bleeding a bit on her foot, too--maybe that's where the thing grabbed her? Our little raccoon trap is too small. The DNR guy in our area is calling tomorrow but if off the rest of the day, today, and I am ON EDGE.

Any advice?

 

[arlee453]

Keep your shoes on in case you have to chase it down again??

Seriously, I hope you gave it a good fright - enough to make it realize that your chickens are guarded by a shoe-less mainac! At least to deter it until you can get a good trap or more info from the DNR guy.

 

[mtnhomechick]

Great work!

 

[halo]

I do hope you've had a recent tetanus shot...if not go get one NOW.

 

[panner123]

Check out trapperman.com Go on their message board and ask if there is a trapper near you. They might come out and trap whatever it is for for. They have been very helpful with me. If there are any tracks, they can tell you what it was.

 

[spook]

I personally prefer live traps over foot traps incase you get your cat, dog or chicken. Bait it with raw meat- chicken, beef or pork. Place a cover of limbs over the top to disquise the trap. Then either shoot it or call the game warden. Just use caution, and when there is one, there will be more- probably a family. Unusual to find a fox that would give up its meal! Please watch out for rabies- just a general precaution. Foxes just like us....we love those chickens!

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

WOW....WOW That amazes me. What a lucky pullet...what women in their right mind would have done that BARE FOOT!?

Kudo's to you!

 

[steffpeck]

You are one brave woman!! Way to go!! Make sure to keep neosporin on your cut, and I second the tetnus shot if you are not current on it. I hope you scared it off for good.

 

[Windy Ridge]

I guess I AM a maniac, not in my right mind at all. (My husband is right about me--don't tell him.) I wasn't even scared at all at the time, but now that I think about it, it clearly wasn't the smartest thing to do. A fox would have had a big tail, right? There wasn't one. Heck, I didn't see anything over the ridge before I went rushing into the breach, so it could have been anything down there. We have coyotes and bear, too. Lucky it wasn't that!

Still, I'd do it again. Poor Evelyn.

My feet are shredded, but I didn't even notice. I think it was like one of those stories you read in which people temporarily gain super strength and stamina to deal with some threat. Come to think of it, my rooster didn't keep up with me, either. I'm not sure how I outpaced him. Normally he can outrun me. He'd been trying to keep everyone away from the orchard fence, but I think she snuck over to eat a fallen apple and got snatched.

That trapperman.com looks like a good site. I think I need to shower off and then have a big scotch-rocks before I can focus on making a plan, though. I just found a twig in my hair. I must look like a maniac, too.

 

[speckledhen]

Wow, Windy, that's quite a SuperWoman imitation you described! I'd probably have done the same thing, then had to go to bed for a week to recover from the adrenaline rush. Good work! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, its..... Windy Ridge!!!