This morning I woke up to a deflated goal.
Having bought an inflatable goal on Saturday and spending most of the 3 hours prior to the cup final saving goals from Eben in the garden, I thought it was pretty much the best 8 quid I'd spent for a while.
Yesterday afternoon Nicky rang me and said 'What's happened to the goal the base is flat'. It looked like it had been mauled. It had 3 puncture marks from what I imagined was a fox, a deduction I made from the fact that it had taken a crap on our patio, which Eben had presented it to Nicky with the words 'look Mummy dog poo'. Fox crap is possibly the worst smell in the world, I know this from years of washing the family dog who seemed to seek the stuff out for entertainment.
Anyway, a quick and dirty puncture repair last night had the goal back up and running, before I went to bed and I chucked it back out in to the garden before retiring upstairs.
As Eben pulled his curtains his morning, I was greeted by a rather sad and dejected looking puddle of plastic and string. I mentioned it to Nicky as I was leaving for work and rather surprisingly, it turned out to be my fault for putting it back in the garden. I however, know the truth, that it is actually a bloody fox. I'm going to swing for the bastard.
I know exactly which fox it is, it swans around out street pillaging from every rubbish bin left carelessly half open. It craps everywhere, mainly because it survives on a diet of fried chicken pickings, which would give most people the runs when it's 'fresh' from the oven.
I hate the scraggy flee bitten git, I can't bring myself to like it. It's vermin, vermin that comes and pops my goal every night and craps in my son's hand (well kind of).
I'm going to stay up and catch the bugger in the act tonight.
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14 comments:
Gold slid to $685.00 and closed at 690 an ounce, down from $715!!!....when I posted it was US650!!!!
Come on...
I'll comment on the foxes later!
;-)
You should contact the Fox rescue people, who'll catch it, and dump it in Essex with thousands of other 'rescued ' foxes.
Failing that, call in the Beaufort hunt !
Surely your local council have a duty to control vermin ?
Oops, sorry Six, but I like those big lumps of flea infested vermin. One flat I had in London had a lovely communal garden that ran to the railway embankment on which the foxes played and I watched. I adored seeing the new cubs every spring, especially when they arrived in the garden for the first time. I confess to having fed them with dog food in the winter when the vixen was looking particularly thin.
We have foxes here too although it isn't the bins they raid because I don't think they have sussed out how to open wheely bins. They make a heck of a lot of noise when they're mating and/or fighting but they are no worse than the cats.
There is a fox hunter type person around your way because I read an article about him fox hunting in Annerly Park, not so long ago. Have an internet browse and deal with it humanely!
Funny about the dog though because my Mom's dog always rolled in the fox pooh too.
Tont Blair could do with having some of his goals deflated (or targets lowered).
We don't get foxes in the garden anymore - might be something to do with Fester the Enormocat....
Every animal/bird it can be argued has a right to live and have the priviledge to get up close and witness it first hand is something to enjoy but though usually I would be too late and probably would never know or witness such an incident we were finding many of the garden birds that visit just an easy meal for a Sparrow Hawk or two.
In some ways it was fascinating to watch such a bird only a few feet from the house. More birds survive because they are fed and as they get the best feed they are in very good condition.
However right below my bedroom window I saw a hawk take a live collared dove and on this ocassion, I did nip outside and disturb it during its kill, it tried to fly away having pulled many feathers out but dropped the dove which dived into a shrub in the garden. It was in shock.
To cut the story short, I managed to bring it indoors into what I suppose is the outhouse which during the cold winter having a radiator allowed it some heat and comfort. I did not realise how badly it had been attacked in that short time(another bird probably took its place as dinner)
However, with care and access to all this food and water, every feather came back, and it was able to fly. I leant an awful lot about birds having one at close quarters that I did know. One day I opened the door, if it wanted toleave it could and when it was ready to in its own time.
After about a week it walked slowly into the garden, flew into a tree and eventually away.
Whether its visited since who knows. Whether the actions were right or wrong everyone will have an opinion for or against but sometimes you do things on the spur of the moment. Ok its not foxes but it about as close to wildlife as I see in my garden...that and a few squirrels in the last year or two.
They've taken over 40 years to appear here, and for the minute seemed to have disappeared again.
I may always have had an inteterst in the birds that visit the garden and wildlife but I blame Bill Oddie and his Spring Watch programmes for rekinddling my interest.
Speaking of Foxes, I did see a film some months ago on one of his programmes on an ordinary housing estate some badgers come to the front garden of a house and wait to be fed. And they were quite tame.
The difficulty is that as towns spread further into animals territory they are threatened or their food sources are taken away which encourages them into the towns and its do we help them or ignore the fact that we have caused some of the problems.
I can imagine how you feel though Six.
Did you catch him Six?!
We had a paddling pool ruined by magpies, or so we thought, maybe it was a fox.
I do like foxes and all the other wildlife in my garden though, much better than pets.
I salute your care of the dove Gildy.
Thank you Lucy...He/She stayed for more than two months before leaving. The larger feathers came back the quickest but it was the fine ones under its wings or on the breast that took the longest to return and it was only if you managed to get close enough and looked at a certain angle you realised what damage had been caused in a short space of time.
I was told that if it is a female Sparrow Hawk the kill is quicker on large birds because the females are larger and the victim therefore suffers less so the time this kill was taking suggests it was a male hawk.
I first caught sight of it from my bedroom as it the dove was pinned down and in the time it took to get outdoors I thought it would've been too late or flown away but on this rare ocassion I did succeed. I doubt I ever will again.
We had a kind of diary on the BBC Wildlife board and the amount of people who followed its progress was amazing. I hope that I was not too graphic.
Thanks again...
G x
No I didn't Lucy. I had neither the will nor the patience. I did spend an hour tryin to fix the bloody goal though and it's a write off which I'm royally hacked off about.
We have trouble with seagulls in July when their eggs hatch. The gulls nest in chimney pots and defend their young by dive bombing anyone who walks past the house in question. Our cat (R.I.P.) once tried to take on a seagull when it ventured onto next door's garage roof. When he realised just how big the bird actually was he beat a hasty retreat.
Six, I'll send my brother round to your house with his shotgun (legal).
He's been known to shoot squirrels out of his bathroom window when they strip all the bark off his fruit trees !
You should encourage wild life to come into the garden, serves you right for buying a piece of junk, inflatable goal i ask you. Build one out of wood, you could even hang a bird feeder off it and kill two birds with one stone (pardon the pun)
I like your thinking there Squil -and Six does so love DIY :)
I know a few people who know a few people, who will rally the hounds and the nags, and tear it up for you......
Seroiusly though Six, my mum has the same problem. Her bins, no matter what material they've been made from, are turned over and rifled through most nights.
I suggest that you throw some nice tasty morsels into the garden of a neighbour about 3 roads away, enough to fill that foxy up.
Failing that, I'll blow on my horn and roust up the Tally Ho set!
K x
Very pretty site! Keep working. thnx!
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