Preditors and Lost Dogs

Our turkey, Palm, showed signs of distress (panting, wings puffed out) one morning.  I was busy and didn’t pay a lot of attention but Oldest Daughter called me very upset at how sick Palm was.  I stopped by the local feed store to see if they had any advice.  He said it sounded like Palm had been scared by something and to see how he was in the morning.  If he was still sick in the morning then it would be time for some medicine.  Oldest Daughter was not happy with my wait and see approach and wanted me to bring Palm into the house but by the time I got home Palm was resting happily on her perch and I was not going to move her.  Palm was fine in the morning.

The next day someone left our gate open and Luca escaped.  I chose Luca’s breed because it isn’t known to be runners like some of the Livestock Guardian Breeds are.  Luca checks on me every 20 to 30 minutes and often is by my side when we are outside.  I was very worried about him.  We put up signs and notified animal control.  He showed up sometime the next morning.  We were so relieved.

Here is Luca sleeping after being gone all day.  Dakota is waiting for him to want to play.

The next night Darling Husband and I were snuggled on the couch watching Alaska: The Last Frontier’s show on predators.  I got up to put on my pajamas and we joked about how lucky we were to have such a small predator load.  By the time I got upstairs I was hearing funny barking.  I called Luca and Tessa, Luca came from running from around the bird’s area and Tessa who never barks was barking by the sheep.   I got Darling Husband and a flash light and together we went to see what had the dogs so riled up.  We found Tessa between the sheep and an opossum.  We opened the gate to try to chase it through but it just hissed at us then Darling Husband grabbed a hoe to try to give it a little push.  In case you are wondering – BAD Idea.  The opossum grabbed a hold of the hoe and hissed and gnashed his teeth at Darling Husband.  We were worried about what it would do if it succeeded in getting into the birds coop so Darling Husband got the gun and shot it. 

 

We had a few peaceful days until New Years Eve.  At midnight a lot of fireworks and guns were shot off in the area.  Tessa ran up to look in my bedroom checked on the cats in the crate by my bedroom door and then ran off.  I got up and checked on her and she seemed ok and I did not bring her into the house.  Partying in our neighborhood, guns, and fireworks went on until 3:am New Years Morning.  I did not check on Tessa after the midnight blasts.  When we got up Tessa was gone.