Four blind mice and the day it was all about poo!

First, the mice. Rich was bringing in our wood and uncovered a mouse nest. I was just finishing up working the dogs in the agility field and bringing them past the pile heading inside. They always "work" the wood pile, Colby mostly hunting grasshoppers, but mice and whatever else might be there. She once found a snake skin - a VERY coveted item and carried it around for hours!!! Today, it was baby mice and Roscoe ate every one. :O Ewwwwwwwwwww!!!!!! Rich ran from the pile, hands to his head going...."Ohhhhhhhh, ickkkkkkkkkk!!!!". I thought about Nate and George and what would Nate do. Stand there, silent, curious, watching, I am sure. George might not kill blind baby mice. Not enough challenge when he has tasted ground hogs before. I'll have to ask George, next time I see him.

In the morning we walked with Nate and George. Kathy is still "under the weather" after having wring surgery. It has wrecked her, really. Down and OUT!!! So, Nate had George tied out in the sun while he cut wood. It's all about wood these days. When he saw us he removed his hard hat and gloves and let George loose to join us. It seemed like the path was littered with poo. All kinds of different poo and Nate and I had to stop and check it out. Fall brings out all the critters, busy stocking up for winter, and their poo is everywhere. Lots of poo. Different poo. Of course, there were also the deer guts from the kill the bow hunter had the night before, but I didn't photograph those. Just poo. It was all about poo on this late morning farm walk.

This poo was some sort of "claim", I think. It was in the middle of a bunch of feathers, obviously from some bird kill. Like the animals was saying........."Hey, look, this was mine, all mine." Why would they do that? The body was gone, it was just feathers? But, it was obviously some marking territory or some sort. It has seeds and corn and I think eggshells and bones in it. Raccoon? Skunk?

We think this poo was raccoon. It is nearly dark purple, probably from berries and on top of the plastic culvert. Raccoons are known for leaving their scat on top of things. Roscoe likes to do that. Another marking of sorts. Scat. What constitutes scat? Shit, crap, dung, poo, poop, feces, waste, manure, bowel movement, dump, what other names are there? I think they do have differences.

Like this is a bird poo. I can't call that dung, or manure. I am pretty sure those terms are only for cloved hoofed animals?

This is definitely scat!! It is full of hair and bones. Coyote, fox?

This is probably from skunk, possom or raccoon. I suppose it could be from fox or coyote, they are omnivours. It is full of corn.

This we weren't sure if it was even from a wild animal. I mean, it does look a little like my dogs poo after they got into some corn.

Wasn't this the most interesting post evah???