Was watching a World Cup game I had recorded Sunday night, after my wife had gone to bed. My boy dog went outside and set up a ruckus, not his normal "I see a deer in the field" barking, this one had growls mixed in. He was over in the corner of the yard by the coop too. SO I roused myself to investigate and saw this one outside the coop next to the woodpile. From where I was standing I couldn't see evidence of him trying to dig under..........yet. He didn't appear to be in the mood to be chased off by the dog or myself, so I went back inside, told the wife, put the girl dog (the scared one) in the room with her, grabbed the 12g and some shells. He didn't spook when I got out of the fenced yard and over to the coop, so he got a load of steel #6 in the head from about 6'. Unfortunately, it didn't leave the skull in good shape and even if it had, I had no time to deal with it. 11 PM and I've got to get up around 5 for a long driver to the doctor 3.5 hrs away in the city. He was a big boar, I'm guessing nearly 30lbs by the fact I had to carry him out the 100 yds to the edge of the property.

[Linked Image]

I have to wonder if he's the one I took pics of in my woodpile last summer. I wonder if my house was on his wandering rounds, as I moved that wood to get the fence in for the coop and saw no sign of him having set up shop there. I generally let things like this go, as we have way more than enough gophers and ground squirrels in the area and he probably ate his share of them. But having put in all the work of building the chicken yard and raising my 8 hens & a rooster for 3 months I wasn't taking chances.

Geno

The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men.
In it is contentment
In it is death and all you seek
(Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)

member of the cabal of dysfunctional squirrels?