Little Bits B4 the Long Weekend

Good day! Is it just me or is this one blazing hot summer in Ontario? Apparently not as this has been floating around social media...

Where I work, the building (warehouse) has no A/C and with all the propane forklifts driving around, plus all the machinery making our products, it's almost unbearable and exhausting some days the last number of weeks. When the work day is done, I don't want to do anything, even sitting in the A/C house and blogging. As much as I have wanted to be lazy, a lot of the time I am not, and cannot.

The Skunk hunt continues although I've decided to not put the trap out until I really start seeing him again, and not just a tail fleeing the yard in the dark. That blog is here. I've caught a number of other birds and animals in the trap. The most "interesting" to extract has been the Opossum. A big creature who barely fit in the trap but did manage to squeeze himself in for the ice cream. Ice cream?!?! Yes, I figure if the Skunk had a hankering for a McFlurry, then baiting him with some ice cream seemed like a good idea. But the 'Possum got to it first.

When I opened the trap, the 'Possum didn't do a thing. I thought perhaps he was stuck and needed some help. I was not about to try and pull him out with my bare hands though, even by his tail. I held the trap above ground, with the opening facing the ground. I shook the trap for a number of minutes before he finally started to slide out... very slowly. It was like trying to get thick ketchup out of the bottle. Finally his weight pulled him out with my shaking. No lie, the animal dropped at my feet. He lay there on top of my feet, looking up at me, for at least a minute before he finally scurried off for safety under the shed.

The Raccoons are having a blast with the trap because they know some good food is within. Momma knows how to get the grub out without getting trapped. The kids love to monkey with the trap, push it around, trigger it and even risk going in, getting trapped, just so they can have the food. I've released them and they quickly run off to a waiting mother nearby.

Nothing but trouble these young'uns are but we love them and they add to our summer.

The other morning I found one stuck in our garbage bin. They are at that age where they are exploring the 'hood and quickly learn good things to snack on can be found in the bins. We rinse our containers and we separate our trash but they still go in on occasion. Lucky for him it was me who found him! He was also lucky to be inside here while we experienced one very intense long lasting thunderstorm. It may have been hot in there but at least he stayed safe and dry.

He sure was happy to get out! To do this, I slowly and gently lower the bin on it's side, and I back away, letting him come out on his own.

I watched him race off home, which is at the very back of our property.

Mom was waiting for him.

I wonder what our furry neighbours think of me? They see me daily, early morning and after dark. I say nothing to them, just do what I'm doing, which is often sitting quiet and still. I make use of sitting by the shed, and set up a little barrier with a cinder block. They come around the corner and look at me. The block seems to be a border and they feel safe with it there, separating us. Of course I see photo ops with this.

No wonder people post Raccoon things on my Facebook wall, eh?

I've been keeping busy with Toronto Wildlife this summer but that's for another blog.

And I guess the biggest news of late is our pal Pierre the Pigeon celebrated his 4 year anniversary of coming to visit us on July 21st. I know not everyone is big on Pigeons, often calling them flying rats or even worse. But come on, this bird deserves some love and respect. He is a survivor! How many of his flock I have seen become Hawk food, get carried off by some free roaming cat or just not come back for one reason or another (none of them good). Sure he gets a good meal from me but other than that, there's nothing else I can do for him, I can't protect him from all the danger out there with predators, Pigeon haters, sickness and so on.

Pierre July 2016

The first day we met back in July 2012

A bitter cold winter day where it was in the -30's with the wind chill

I made this on his 2 year anniversary with us

A birding bud whom we've not yet met created this.  Thanks Jeff, still makes me laugh!

Thanks for stopping in, thanks for not giving up on me and my blog! Have a great long weekend, if you have one. Cheers!

I posted this on social media not too long ago, and I guess it is good for here too.

A Birthday I Will Never Forget

Today, July 17th, would have been Meadow's 13th birthday.

I actually felt sad today as I thought about that.

I grieved for a long time after her passing. Do I grieve now? Maybe. I miss her, and I always will. Sometimes I am not sure if the two are different or not.

I remind myself how truly fortunate I was to have a cat like her. She was my best friend. Anyone who knew of Meadow, knows this.

I acknowledged this day and probably will again next year, perhaps the year after. I will eventually stop keeping track because really, imagine 15 years from now I am blogging on July 17th and be like "today would have been Meadow's 28th birthday".

Of course I love our cats Merry and Molly.

All living beings are individuals, none can ever be replaced. They are family too.

It's funny that we can see some of Meadow in each of them. Merry seems to have that love for me, being "daddy's girl" while Molly has her playful side, enjoying the odd items that really aren't cat toys and loves to tear up the house just like Meadow did.

I always tell people that the love from an animal is genuine and that the bond is eternal. I truly believe that.

Happy birthday Meadow. I think about you every day, that is no lie. Today though you are in my thoughts much more.

Never a Dull Backyard Moment

Hi everyone,

I just realized that I never gave an update on my Squirrel friend. Sadly, he did not make it. He had some serious injuries within including spinal trauma and in what would be best for him, he was put to sleep.

I know he wasn't a resident of the backyard or too close since I didn't see him daily. I suspect he did some traveling to get here when he did come to visit. My guess is in his travels he may have been clipped by a car.

It sucks but at least he is not in pain any longer.

I will miss him.

Rest in peace my friend. Thank you for the friendship and memories. You touched my heart in those few short months.

And now it's time for another backyard rescue to take place. This photo was taken on Tuesday July 12.

I had just gotten out of bed. I'm not a speedy "waker-upper" kinda human these days. I'm rather zombie-like and desperately need a coffee and a few minutes (sometimes more) to come to life. But a cool backyard critter can give me the jolt I need as well, like this Skunk.

It was around 7am. I'm excited to see him in the morning light. I quickly get dressed, grab my camera and go out the front door, and then sneak up the side of the house so as to not spook him. As I got him in my sights, it was then that I noticed the "trashy bling" around his neck. I snapped off half a dozen photos, watching him move about the garden, and started thinking about what to do. We recently bought a live trap since we've had to borrow one numerous times over the years to trap injured mammals. It's too early to call Toronto Wildlife about this but with my experience in the last couple years as a volunteer I know this... #1 contain him, #2 call them about the situation, and from there things would get moving rather quickly to help him.

Unfortunately he was already heading off to bed by the time I got my s**t together, getting the cob webs out of my brain and grabbing the trap and some bait (was going to try some chicken).

I still set out the trap because I have seen them come through as late as 10 or 11am some summer mornings, when I thought they had gone off to bed already. I was home for the morning so I was going to check the trap periodically. NEVER LEAVE A LIVE TRAP UNATTENDED FOR LENGTHY PERIODS OF TIME!

I called Toronto Wildlife and told them of the situation.

Since then, it's been a waiting game for his return.

I was out back Wednesday at 5:30am, setting the trap and waiting. No luck.

I set it up again this rainy morning too. No luck... yet.

I will try again tomorrow, and through the weekend if need be.

I cannot leave the trap set all night because we have a couple Skunks, a couple Opossums and a family of Raccoons that cruise our backyard. It must be done in my waking moments. The brutal humidity of this week has not made things any easier or enjoyable. I'm a gross mess by the time I get home from work at 10:30pm. We have no a/c in the warehouse. So after 8+ hours away in this nastiness, I just want to shower and chill out in the comforts of home. I do have a quick peek for him before I go into unwind mode.

I've since named him "Mick". I got the name after a brief conversation with Andrew from TWC. He made mention of the lid being from a McFlurry treat from McDonald's.

I do hope I can catch him sooner than later if the lid does not somehow come off through his travels, or he miraculously squeezes out of it.

Angie and I are very conscientious about our trash, ensuring nothing going in the bins is going to get some wild animal into trouble later on. It's shitty not everyone thinks like that. This waste may have been thrown from someone's car window or it came from an over packed recycle bin. Who knows? I never thought about these lids needing to be cut, but then again, I don't consume such treats and don't come across anything with such lids. But if I ever do in the future, I will certainly make sure it is cut apart.

Someone shared this link with me. Give it a read if you have a moment. As you can see, this problem is everywhere. Some of the animals are lucky to stumble into the right backyards and get the help they need.