FIRST and FOR MOST is that black and white striped cat-like creature that stinks to HIGH HEAVEN!

SKUNKS!!!

Skunks are —well, stinky.  They also are good bug catchers, and…if Mom isn’t careful…eaters of CHICKENS!!!

Skunks love to spray things, and for sure— dogs.  But since I’m not a dog, when I see a SKUNK, with his/her tail all fluffed up…I RUN!  I’m not stupid like a dog.

I have no desire to ‘take on a skunk’  — I don’t want to meow at it, run headlong at it with my mouth open and loud sounds coming out of my mouth, nor do I want that NASTY GREEN STINK to hit me in the face!
Let’s just say…I’m smarter than a dog!

Just say’n.

Then there are

PORCUPINES!

Randomly we have one or two come into the yard and snack on the fruit in the Apricot trees, but mostly porcupines stay out on the farm.

Porcupines are another DOG Magnet!  Not cat magnet…DOG MAGNET!

Dogs LOVE porcupines!  There is always at least one dog who never learns what a porcupine can do TO a dog. That said dog get clobbered with QUILLS up the nose, in the mouth, down the throat, all over the face.

(This is Hank Puff–the grandkids’ dog)

Then there are dogs who never get clobbered or, if they do, it’s only once, and then it’s maybe just ten or so quills.

Sometimes Cows, horses, and other curious creatures get clobbered with the tail of the porcupine, but cats Never do.

Yes, I know cats are known to be very, v.e.r.y. curious, but when it comes to DANGER…cats know to SCRAM out of there! A porcupine and his tail of quills spell DANGER!

You see…Cats are SMART!  Very Smart!

Then there are those extremely clever creatures called

RACOONS!

Raccoons are over-the-top smart!  I mean eye-q’s of beyond the clouds smart.

Raccoons love eating all sorts of stuff, corn on the cob, corn spilled on the ground, corn scattered to feed the birds, speaking of birds—

raccoons love eating chickens.  They reach their very clever little hands through the chicken wire on the pen grab a hen by the neck, pull the neck through the wire, and bite off the head.

If a person were to let their hens run wild all over the yard, lay their eggs wherever then the raccoons would find the eggs and eat them all up.

That is why mom’s hens don’t get to run in the yard until AFTER they lay their eggs!

Raccoons love to eat anything in the mom’s garden…. all the melon’s the corn, tomatoes, you name it.  If they don’t eat it then they rip it up and tear it out.

They like all sorts of chicken, dog, cow, horse, and mule feed, so Mom and my sister, Shannon, keep those things in big black plastic barrels shut up in buildings.

Speaking of barrels, raccoons LOVE GARBAGE.

Those very clever and smart creatures can take the lid off a 50-gallon barrel and tip it over scattering all the garbage from here to there.

Raccoons have hands just like humans and they use them just like humans.

Just so you know— MOM DOES NOT LIKE RACOONS no matter HOW cute they are!

Badgers.  Now if you want to take on something that looks like a flat skunk, without the big bushy tail, try taking on a Badger.

Those creatures are mean!

Over-the-top mean.  Dad has been chased by a badger, Mom said Boomer and Hank were chased by a badger…every fox on the place gives the badgers a wide berth.

Thankfully Badgers don’t come into the farmyard so I’ve never met one.  Nor am I likely to go way up to the Upper End or the Back Forty just to see one.

I am a good learner…just tell me to stay away and I will!

TLC Cai-Cai