The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Wildlife => Topic started by: Fleecewife on May 18, 2020, 06:43:29 pm
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A couple of days ago we noticed that something - we assumed badger - had been digging out bones where many years ago we had buried a dead newborn lamb. There were a few white bones left lying around. It must have been buried years and years ago, before we had to send deadstock off for incineration. That wasn't too bad as it let us see where the water table came to down at Soggy Bottom.
However, today we have just found the wretched badger has been trying to dig up one of our dogs :dog: which died only about 6 weeks ago. That is not allowed! Mr F is out there now refilling the excavation and making sure the badger cannot get access again. A bit Burke and Hare.
And speaking of hare, a halfgrown leveret is happily living in our veggie patch...happily for her perhaps, but I'm not so keen.
Just a bad day, I'll love them all again tomorrow.
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Oh no, that's a horrible thing to have a recently departed friend being partially exhumed! :o :hug: :hug: :bouquet: I can quite see why Mr Badger is not quite so welcome at Fleecewife Towers at the moment!
Aww, I can't resist a hare. :love: They used to say 3 acres for the farmer and an acre for the deer, I wonder how much extra one should plant for a resident young hare... :sofa:
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Ah well there's not just the one hare 8) There's the mother who spends most of her time here, and her babies, 3 for this litter and doubtless she'll have more later. Without the dogs around the hares are much bolder so we seem to be tripping over them everywhere. We love having them, it's just I would rather this one hadn't taken up residence in the veggie patch. I've been meaning to make a scarecrow for a while, so maybe now's the time. I wonder if hares know just how tasty they are? I remember the jugged hare with redcurrant sauce my grandmother once made. Of course I would never eat a hare now, but that doesn't stop me eyeing up the bunnies which are around too.
When I found the excavation at the dogs' graves I was expecting to find that Rippy had gone, but we had buried them both very deep, thank goodness and the badger had given up before it got to him :relief:
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The fishing phrase when contemplating a cast under bushes is "the fish is worth the fly".
I think the hare is worth the cabbage. Maybe just fence off the ones you really don't want her to munch?
Slightly related, we have a family of swallows who have been building the world's worst nest by our back door. It just seemed like the wrong kind of mud entirely, and kept falling off. So, I've spent the last couple of days adding wire reinforcement every time they add a row or two of mud. Soft as fluff, me :love: .
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How awful for you, sorry you've lost your :dog: :'(
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How awful for you, sorry you've lost your :dog: :'(
We lost them both in fact, just a few weeks apart. I'm not 'allowed' any more dogs - I've had dogs all my life so it is taking quite some getting used to. Maybe once the virus is not the main preoccupation of the world, we can have a rethink :fc: :dog: :dog:
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The fishing phrase when contemplating a cast under bushes is "the fish is worth the fly".
I think the hare is worth the cabbage. Maybe just fence off the ones you really don't want her to munch?
Slightly related, we have a family of swallows who have been building the world's worst nest by our back door. It just seemed like the wrong kind of mud entirely, and kept falling off. So, I've spent the last couple of days adding wire reinforcement every time they add a row or two of mud. Soft as fluff, me :love: .
Oh I agree the hare is worth the cabbage :thumbsup: And as I predicted, I love wildlife again today, now the dogs' graves are well covered.
You're doing well with your swallows nest, not a softy at all. We have had two martins nests which collapsed from poor materials - one the nestlings both died in the fall, the other we repaired with wire, fleece and cement, and those chicks survived and the pair went on to use the nest again for another successful brood. Neither martin pair has nested here again though, in spite of the lovely artificial nests we put up :(
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I'm not 'allowed' any more dogs - I've had dogs all my life so it is taking quite some getting used to.
Why?
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I'm not 'allowed' any more dogs - I've had dogs all my life so it is taking quite some getting used to.
Why?
Complex reasons really, to do with just how much we can do physically and how much falls on Mr F. But I am working on him, slowly. We have both fallen in love with a particular dog looking for a home, but he would be fairly high input. No dogs are available just yet because of the virus situation, so we shall re-evaluate when they are, never fear ;D :innocent:
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That is sad about losing both Fleecewife - you mention a 'potential' but being high input - what kind of dog is it and what age etc?
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That is sad about losing both Fleecewife - you mention a 'potential' but being high input - what kind of dog is it and what age etc?
He's in the local Dog's Trust home at West Calder - Brodie is his name, about 7 yo I think. He's down as a crossbreed, but he looks like a small wolfhound, with scruffie grey, harsh fur and big brown eyes. He looks like a type of lurcher and when we enquired we were told that he was a chasing dog, and would be unsuitable for a smallholding, especially one like ours where the poultry are totally free range, and we have several hares and pheasants living here. We thought hard how we could manage him, but we had to conclude that although everything else was perfect for him, with plenty of space, no children, quiet area, loving home, experienced owners, it would be totally unfair to him to have prey present but to be unable to chase them.
The Dog's Trust cannot allocate dogs to new homes until after the lockdown is over, and even after that we shall be isolating until there is a vaccine, so we shall have to wait.
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I am a scruffy lurcher softie and can really understand your desire to rescue one [member=4333]Fleecewife[/member], but they are, as you obviously appreciate, some of the hardest rescues to manage especially if they have previously been "worked".
Most rescue centres won't let you take one unless you have "suitable" fenced enclosures to stop them from roaming & decimating surrounding small wild-life populations including any neighbours' small pets ! And walkies for most sight-hound rescue dogs will involve only walking on a tether of some sort unless one has access to acres of free land (a beach in many folk's circumstances)!
I personally gave up on the idea eventually (and in particular rescuing a Spanish Podenco - they really do it for me) and am now trying to "help" a friend of mine navigate away from a similar fixation on finding the right sight-hound rescue dog.
I would say the most manageable option for "pet" sight-hounds of all types is to acquire them as puppies (which normally means buying from the breeder) and socialise them with all manner of small fluffy/feathery things very early on.
HOWEVER, they are all trainable: watch a pack of Spanish Podencos hunting rabbits with the dog-pack leader taking quarry from the pack members to take back to their human pack-master !
All a matter of time and effort I guess, with training/retraining perseverance and maybe a bit of luck as well !! But, not to be considered lightly !
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Here he is:https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/rehoming/dogs/dog/filters/~~~~~n~/1228601/brodie (https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/rehoming/dogs/dog/filters/~~~~~n~/1228601/brodie)
(scroll down the page)
Yes, reading between the lines, and from what they told us on the phone, he has been worked and that is why he is suddenly needing to be rehomed at 5yo.
We do have a field of about 2 acres where we could exercise him off the lead - it's the tups field but they are easy to move and there's a separate bit at one end they could be put into while the dog was in the field. But for the rest of the day, we would want him with us, wherever we were working.
I think we have to accept the Dog Trust's advice that he would not be suitable, although that makes me very sad.
I put the link so that if anyone else is in a position to take him and could offer him a loving home, that would really please me :dog: :thumbsup:
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OMG. A very handsome chap indeed ! Looks more like a deer-hound. :)
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[member=4333]Fleecewife[/member] I wonder whether 'they' would consider a foster/trial homing ?
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The way they do it is to have a number of supervised visits, but given the Covid19 restrictions, they can't happen at the moment. Add to that, we are in guarding isolation, so no such visits can take place until, from our point of view, there is a vaccine. We would not take on a new dog until we were protected from catching, and probably dying from, Covid19, as that would be another stressor for the dog, requiring him to be rehomed again (plus some other side effects for us of course, like we'd be dead!)
I think that unless the Trust cannot rehome him elsewhere (in which case we would take him like a shot) then we have to try to forget him.
He does look like our first Irish Wolfhound, Brora, except she was about twice his size :D
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Just tried topost a picture of my scruffy schnauzer but its just too complicated >:( Anyway I wanted to show how similar to Brodie he looked - yep its just not worth the risk is it, you'd never forgive yourself if he hurt one of your other animals :-\ Shame isn't it :bouquet: :hug:
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I grew up with a scruffy schnauzer - he hated being stripped, poor lad.
We've accepted that Brodie really would not be suitable for us here. We are really sad about it, but we shall keep on looking for a dog or dogs to adopt and give a loving home to. I think I can say that after all this discussion, Mr F has come round to the knowledge that we shall before too long, have another dog ( ;) ) It's just too good here for dogs not to give one or two a relaxing, happy home to end their days here in the sun :sunshine: :dog: :dog:
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Yay :thumbsup: to Mr F.