25 May 2003
Barn of Death

Well, some excitement tonight for sure. We had set a new fence today, about 100 feet from the corner of the smaller east pasture to the barn edge. This will increase our paddock space considerably, and give the animals more access to the barn(s).

We noticed that the new kittens were missing this morning - late this afternoon we found one of their bodies, pretty badly chewed. The adopted mother cat had been acting pretty strange, as has the tom, Jasper. In fact, all the livestock were kinda edgy this afternoon, keeping close to the paddock and close to each other. We had a predator on the prowl.

Tonight when we went to do the barn check about 9, we found him - or one of them. A very large raccoon, and a very hurt one. I'm pretty sure he got the kittens, and I could see that the mother cat had taken her toll on him in their defense. I finished the job with a .22 pistol in the hay mow - a bloody mess, to be sure. But we can't have those kinds of omnivores running loose in our barn - not only would we not be able to keep any cats (and hence risk a rat population explosion) but coons can carry some fairly serious diseases for livestock.

But the fence is straight - and I'm reasonably certain that the coon got the kittens, and that problem is obviously solved. I just hope that it was the commotion of the the coon in the barn that spooked the rest of the livestock, and not a pack of coyotes. With Tup running around, he'd be the first to go. And that would not be good.

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