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Been checkin' out scat online
I can explain.
Friday afternoon, I came home and Maxwell (doglet) was at the fence to greet me as usual. But he looked...odd. Depressed, somehow.
I went on into the garage then in through the house. The dog door the mudroom was open, so he was there to show his affection by tripping me and sharing his dog fur with my uniform as usual. He was so excited (normal) that I didn't place what the problem was until I let him into the house proper and watched him walk ahead of me. His tail was down.
Wait. Lemme fetch a pic. This is him back in '03 or '04 when I first got him:
Note the unconquerable tail. It's so very curved that the icy tip usually brushes his back backwards.
Well, Friday evening, the tail was straight and down. He seemed to have trouble walking straight. The tail would list to his left, and he'd stumble a bit.
I fed him, then checked for some sign of trauma. There was none. Further, I could poke, prod and squeeze his tail and he wouldn't complain. Thinking it might be an impinged nerve, I prodded along his hips, his backbone, his pelvis--but nothing. When I finished, he curled up, licked at it, then chewed on his hind foot.
I didn't know what to make of it, so...research. It turns out he had a condition known as Cold Tail (or "Cold Water Tail" or "Dead Tail" or "Flaccid Tail Syndrome" or--my favorite--"Broken Wag"). Here's a heartwarming little rundown.
He looked so pathetic lying around with a dead appendage chewing on his foot like that, but what could I do? I felt sorry for him and yes...he worked it like a pro, but the condition didn't seem life-threatening, so there was no reason to call the vet on the weekend. The websites say the condition's cause is unknown (one did posit that he might have wagged too furiously and sprained his tail HAHAHAHAHAHahahahaha. Oh, sorry), but they said he'd improve over the next few days.
The next day, I noticed a gouged spot on the right side of his jaw. I wondered somewhat passively what had gotten into the pen with him. I reckoned it might be a raccoon (one of which, of mutant largeness, I saw out here only yesterday, and Maxwell's just innocent enough to try to make friends, I fear). But...it's a mystery.
By today, the tail was back up. It has the curl back in the end, but it isn't tight over the back again yet. He's feeling better.
I went out around 3pm to cut up some wood for the fireplace. I have lots of trees lying around, so I wandered to a random grouping and went to work with my new chain saw (wheee!). Maxx was running around, probably going down to say Nyaa Nyaa at the neighbor's dogs, then making the rounds, pooping in people's yards, etc. I sliced up three trees then went up to fetch the wheelbarrow, which was behind the house adjacent to the dog pen.
There was a HUGE pile of feces nearby. My first thought was that I didn't appreciate the neighbor's dogs coming up here into MY yard and pooping (although turnabout would be fair play). Then it occurred to me that a dog capable of emitting a pile of that volume would be fearsome indeed. It was clearly no dog. And--it should go without saying--no coon. It wasn't horse, either; I've seen enough horse poo to spot it (and smell it) from a distance.
There. I'd eliminated three possible culprits. What was left?
Well...I have a pack of deer who wander through the "yard" on an almost daily basis. But this was not really pellety. Y'know? Deer poo always looks so inadequate considering the size of the mammal which emits it. That wasn't it, either.
I think I found it. It looks much like this (only the pile is bigger). And yeah...I scanned through steaming websites of bobcat and mountain lion poo, as well; this isn't cat poo. It seems to be...well, bear poo.
Hm. What to do next? Also, I imagine there's a connection between the steaming pile of excrement and Maxx's broken wag, but who's to say?
d
8 comments
Hmmmmmm. If you are brave enough (or perhaps–dumb enough?) It appears you have a very good start on fertalize (ok. It’s probably spelled wrong) for a rather nice garden. I would give the depositor enough time to return to his tundra, before investing his deposit, if I were you.
Well, Diana, it seems you either might plan to make friends with the bear or see if you can turn it into dead meat! (Of course, there may be more than one bear in the immediate area, in which case the other(s) might decide to come hunting you!
Whatever, it sounds like you and Maxwell will be staying close to the house until the bears hibernate, huh???
Hi,
Might I suggest perusing the websites for the cities of West Vancouver and North Vancouver? They have bears coming out of the mountains on a regular basis up there so these sites have numerous handy hints for keeping bears at bay or at least reducing the attraction of ones home and yard to the beasts.
I live on an island at the mouth of the Fraser so no bears as yet but we do have coyotes, and tonnes of feral rabbits to feed them, across the street from us. Some mornings, we find their scat in our yard. Our house rabbits tend to kick up quite a fuss if we have a window open when the carnivores visit and it also makes the house smell of old dog. Urban, or semi-rural, wild life can have a surprising effect on our lives.
I once went to the doctor to get something to help my intermittent sleep. It had gone on long enough. I was stupid from sleep deprivation. It wasn’t until later, when we trimmed the plum trees overhanging the roof, that I realised the cause of my sleep disturbance wasn’t menopause as I’d suspected; it was raccoons on the roof. A half hour of chainsaw time remedied a long-standing sleep problem. Were it that all problems with marauding wild life could be so easily solved.
Good luck bear-proofing the yard. It does make raccoons stomping on the roof seem pretty minor.
Lorraine
Raccoons on the roof! Wow! That would keep you awake, I bet. I’m wondering why you thought it was menopause. “Doc, I can’t sleep at night. Is a lot of roof racket a symptom of menopause?” :D
I have a coon under my porch from time to time. He’s a sizable thing, too. When I step out on the porch, he hightails it for the neighbor’s house (they have a chicken coop, which I imagine is well-protected…or maybe they just don’t have any chickens left anymore).
Y’all have grizzlies up there in Canada, too, don’t you? Here in Colorado, we have black bears (and claims of grizzly sightings over the last four decades, grizzly hairs found, and even a grizzly or two shot here, but the Colorado wildlife peeps insist they’re extinct here. OK). I don’t want to step out my door and meet either one. I’ll check on some bear info. Thanks!
d
Hi,
Menopause because the timing fit and because I didn’t hear any racket. By the time I was awake, all was silent. The only noise we consciously heard in the night was knocking on our front door, only to find no one there. By the time one regains consciousness from a deep sleep, fumbles to find something presentable in which to answer the door, then opens said door, sleep returns slowly, if at all. When we finally discovered a squirrel in the attic (literally not figuratively), using a roof beam on which to crack nuts, the mystery was solved. It does demonstrate how some folk can suspect ghosts. Urban wildlife!
In Canada, we actually have 3 kinds of bears: polar, black and grizzly. Since the closure of the Stanley Park Zoo, we’ve had no polar bears in our neck of the woods but the other two seem to be in good supply and increasing. Want a few?
At the moment, there is an official looking memo from the government wild-life department going around stating the official identification criteria for differentiating black bears from grizzlies. It mentions the visual differences, says bells tend to warn off black bears and that pepper spray is an effective deterrent in a black bear attack. The memo then goes on to mention the appearance of black bear scat. It says grizzly scat is more easily identified because it has bells in it and smells of pepper spray. Any bells in the specimen you found?
All kidding aside, bears are not nice neighbours and it sounds like your rural idyll might require some safety measures. Just what you need, more work.
Cheers,
Lorraine
LOL. :D
We had squirrels in the attic in Alabama, come to think of it. They were noisy critters. Then we got cats in the house and a dog. Although none of them went into the attic, the squirrel activity ceased immediately. Maybe the squirrels could smell them…?
Or maybe the pets made so much noise we could no longer hear the squirrels, come to think of it.
d
Diana–We have bears in this area. Earlier this year we had a small black bear half a block from my house, so I’m not surprised if one went through your yard. Hopefully Max was smart enough to not get too close to Yogi.
During spring and fall the bears will be hungrier. In the former they just woke up, and in the latter it’s a last-ditch effort to fatten up for hibernation. Make sure you keep access to garbage, bird-seed (yes, they’ll eat from feeders), and dog food to a minimum.
The raccoons can be tons of fun. One night I had one slitting open a screen window with his claw. He wanted to come in and munch on the cat food. Another time I had to chase a mother and her kits out of my garage; they had come to feast on the dog’s kibble. And yes, I’ve had them scrabbling on my roof at 3 a.m. Makes for a great night’s sleep. The real down-side, though, is that they can carry rabies. Pls be careful of any wild-eyed, foaming at the mouth ‘coons!
One final welcome warning to our neck o’ the woods: foxes and coyotes. Max looks big enough not to be bothered by them. However, don’t let your cats get out, or Fluffy may not come back.
Other than all that, it’s a pretty quiet and idyllic area.
I think I’m good to go with coons, Peachy, but I appreciate the warnings. The cats are all indoor cats. The screens are all on the inside of the windows and the windows are very, very far from the ground, anyway. I’m more afraid that Maxx will have an unfortunate encounter with a coon, rabid or not (he’s current on his rabies shot, of course, but coons are vicious little buggers). There’s an off-chance that a coon will decide to pop into the doggie door (if they get past Maxx), which means they’ll get into the mud room only, but I don’t normally leave food there, anyway. (I have the same concern about foxes, which are capable of scaling the dog fence and exploring, but they concern me a bit less than the coons.)
Garbage may be an issue with the bears, though. Hm. I’m not sure how to improve the situation, though. I already have a large garbage container with a lid. I don’t normally put food in it. So far, so good.
d