Oh Naaaaaaaaaaaaattthhhhhh, I Need You!!

[Sixgun]

Been wondering why our cat food bill has doubled. (Pictures are not perfect as I took these through the window----took these 15 minutes ago) This guy and his buddy come to the front door every night. Sometimes he looks at me and goes back to eating the cat food.........kinda wish he would eat the cats. He is very healthy looking or he would have caught a load of #2's.------6

[Streetstar]

Thats awesome Six ! Maybe that's your spirit animal !

[ollogger]

Take the cat food away at night the fox will most likely go for the cats then



Brad

[AJMD429]

Take the cat food away at night the fox will most likely go for the cats then

....

[Rimfire McNutjob]

#2's ... ? How is this not a job for the Bee?

[jkbrea]

That's so much cooler than a cat! B

[earlmck]

Sheeesh! Nath would dispatch those little things with an airgun.

[winchester1886]

If he ain't doin no harm leave him be, room for all of us.

[GunnyMack]

Throw the cats out and let the fox in! Might be a bit nippy but still better then a cat!

[Griff]

I woulda thunk he'd already be at the "pelt" stage in life...

[jnyork]

If he ain't doin no harm leave him be, room for all of us.

This. Not everyone has two foxes on their doorstep every night.

Popular opinion to the contrary, we do NOT have to kill everything that walks.

[Sixgun]

Funny thing that happens to a man as we age. When we are young we have to "prove" ourselves. I did a lot of killing in my younger days but it was hunting related. I ate it all, except crows and other vermin. I also killed a lot of wild dogs, most of them while they were chasing deer. Shooting crows at 2-400 yards was a "fun pastime". No squirrel within 60 yards was safe with me and my 1892 in 32-20.

I was the one in the family who "always got his yearly deer" at a time when success was at best a 10% proposition.

I killed my last deer 15 years ago and my last and only elk in 2003. Crows and foxes come in the yard regularly and I like watching them. Squirrels hop from tree to tree. In 2003 I was kicked out of a hunting camp for violently berating a fellow camp member because he shot a deer at 200 meters with a .270 Whby. Mag. while it was bedded down.....gut shot it and the deer got away with his intestines hanging out.....and he and the other guys laughed about it. They all said to me, "it was only a deer".

I realize hunting is a good and necessary sport...I just let others do it now. I'll still pull the trigger on living flesh (and do) but it has to be "in the best interests" of Mother Nature or any person that needs protecting.

Thanks for looking at these neat pics and commenting.------6

[Borregos]

If he ain't doin no harm leave him be, room for all of us.

+1

Neat pictures 6, we used to see a lot of them round here but very scarce now.

[TWHBC]

Funny thing that happens to a man as we age. When we are young we have to "prove" ourselves. I did a lot of killing in my younger days but it was hunting related. I ate it all, except crows and other vermin. I also killed a lot of wild dogs, most of them while they were chasing deer. Shooting crows at 2-400 yards was a "fun pastime". No squirrel within 60 yards was safe with me and my 1892 in 32-20.

I was the one in the family who "always got his yearly deer" at a time when success was at best a 10% proposition.

I killed my last deer 15 years ago and my last and only elk in 2003. Crows and foxes come in the yard regularly and I like watching them. Squirrels hop from tree to tree. In 2003 I was kicked out of a hunting camp for violently berating a fellow camp member because he shot a deer at 200 meters with a .270 Whby. Mag. while it was bedded down.....gut shot it and the deer got away with his intestines hanging out.....and he and the other guys laughed about it. They all said to me, "it was only a deer".

I realize hunting is a good and necessary sport...I just let others do it now. I'll still pull the trigger on living flesh (and do) but it has to be "in the best interests" of Mother Nature or any person that needs protecting.

Thanks for looking at these neat pics and commenting.------6

[Chuck 100 yd]

You are a good man 6. I feel the same way about hunting today. After my hunting buddy passed, the desire has left me. I shoot more than ever, my targets have just changed. Hunting for me, the kill was never the main goal. Just getting out with a loyal friend and enjoying the experience was my joy.

[Griff]

...the kill was never the main goal. Just getting out with a loyal friend and enjoying the experience was my joy.

+1.

[Nath]

Interesting sentiments or opinions but what some maybe forgetting is the benefits to wildlife in general this side of the pond if fox numbers are controlled!
Where I walk you will see more species of wildlife than elsewhere, especially ground nesters!
Also any fox that eludes me is living in paradise, full of food and little competition.

I happen to think a rat is a neat looking critter but that don't adjust my toleration of them being in my back yard!

N.

[Sixgun]

I hear ya Nath....as I was taking the pictures last night I was calling your name and my wife says,"who the hell is Nath?" I told her to be quiet until after the photo session.

I'm with you on the thinking. Those foxes will decimate ground species of animals, especially rabbits, pheasants and squirrels. I've been living on the same plot of ground since Feb of '75....my wife was born 200 yards away and we both are "in tune" with what needs to be shot. When the fox population grows out of hand we see many nasty looking mangy ones with stumps for tails. These foxes have cost me a small fortune over the years as their mange parasites somehow gets on our dogs. I've shot quite a few with this disease and then things are good for a few years and back to square one. Same thing with coons....too many and rabies set in. One year maybe 25 years ago I shot so many foxes we did not see any for a couple of years and we were indulged with mice...everywhere...mice.

Yea, we need a balance to which you know.

I shot this one (front one) back in '84 using an 1886 Winchester in .33 W.C.F. It weighed an incredible 18 pounds...the biggest our taxidermist ever saw. The vixen behind it was shot a few days later by my son using a Marlin bolt gun .22 when he was 12. So I decided to have them mounted together...cost me $500 and that was two weeks pay in those days. Some years later the wife told me to get them out of the living room so they are gathering dust in the basement.




I shot this one back in '85 using a .218 Bee, popped his head off and drove a 60 penny spike through his eye and into a fence post......let the ants do their job. (Yea, these need a dusting too)----6

[JerryB]

Six, he looks like he would eat right out of your hand. Several years ago we had a big momma gray fox that came down off the ridge every spring and sit in the back yard and look in the window. When my wife would see her I would have to go buy a big sack of cat food. That old fox would sit and wait for me to put food in the big pan twice a day. When her pups were old enough to wean she would bring them down to the yard and get them started eating. We miss the old girl she would sit there and eat while my was hanging up clothes on the line, have not seen her for three or four years.

[BenT]

I used to see a lot of foxes around. Years ago anytime I was doing field work there was a large red fox that would sit on rock at the edge of the field and watch for mice.

When coyote population got higher, I don't see many foxes. I shoot every coyote I see but I leave the foxes alone.

I still deer hunt, but I am selective.This year I watched a six point buck browse around my stand and then bed down 30 yards away for a hour. I am entertained by watching wildlife. I keep two trail cameras out all year around just to see what is coming through.

[Sixgun]

Yea, I hear there are coyotes in the area but have not seen any yet...they will catch hot lead for sure. I wonder about "wild" animals.....I really don't think they are wild...just scared of man.

I don't know, maybe I'm softening up too much and need a reality check. Gotta stop watching all of these Bambi movies. I really like Bambi sliding up and down those poles. ---6

[6pt-sika]

In 2003 I was kicked out of a hunting camp for violently berating a fellow camp member because he shot a deer at 200 meters with a .270 Whby. Mag. while it was bedded down.....gut shot it and the deer got away with his intestines hanging out.....and he and the other guys laughed about it. They all said to me, "it was only a deer".
------6

I still like taking deer each year and put in more time then I should doing just that .
I also feel a bigger twinge each year when I shoot one , my grandfather told me 20 years ago that was coming God rest his soul !

And you and I agree 1000% on what the guy in your hunting camp did . It may have "only been a deer" , but that deer is still a living being that deserves to be killed cleanly or if wounded followed up as quickly as possible and finished off . Again I still like shooting them BUT I DO NOT WANT TO SEE THEM SUFFER !