I'm no sherlock.....

clue #1

sunday AM I was watching goats and drinking just a bit of coffee when they all suddenly spooked, and ran back to the house. the dogs started going ballistic also. I watched and saw two black critters running down by the pond. ack. must be the neighbors lab and some other dog. they were out of sight quickly. grrrr.

clue #2

went for a walk on our 'trails' to check the deer feeder. deer feeder is destroyed and all the corn is gone. no pony prints but I reasoned that the ponies must have decided to wander out here as even if the goats ever did (they don't) they wouldn't have destroyed the feeder. ponys scratching their butts on it or fighting over bits of corn might have.

clue #3

gee those dogs must have had a heck of a time this morning. every ten paces on the trail there is another spot all torn up. they must be young dogs.

clue #4

oh look. a cloven hoof print. looks a little odd. toes are tighter then normal deer and the partial print shows an edge more rounded then typical. maybe its an older deer or one that had some nutritional deficiency (looking back...DUH!)

clue #5

geez. those stupid dogs pooped everywhere.! my old cody dog was like that. never neat piles. lots of little poops everywhere so it was a pain to pick up...

Big DUH moment........

uhmmmm there is the neighbors wild hog pen.... "do you think he sold a few?" ..."I dunno...maybe he butchered them......"    then we both looked at each other "#$%^&*@#^" they are loose on our property! sure enough....we found them sleeping a moment later near the pen of their buddies. they spooked and went running off down the trail.

it is amazing. they couldn't have been out more then 3 days. but all the digging and damage and poop was fresh. it has been rainy so its easy to tell. I don't think they were out more than a day.

I now have first hand experience with what these menaces can do. this is two young/small wild hogs. the black "dogs" I saw were mostly likely these two pigs this morning. maybe on their first stint after escaping or being released. their pen is remarkably solid. double fenced and utilizing stock panels. it shares a fence line with us. can't see how they got out.  maybe he was tired of feeding them. released some. maybe the males. I don't know.

i do know now after looking at the OK dept of wildlife website that once they are out 5 days we can shoot them. and that is what we intend to do.

Let me know when you have fresh pork to eat! 

oh I do love a mystery !!! I'm hooked on all those crime shows like csi, ncis, criminal minds..etc..and oh boy..that was a good forensic job you did..

yes..pork..now to get a smoker hooked up some do some great bacon and ham !! Hey you fed the buggers..

Until you mentioned the neighbors wild hogs I thought your mystery critters were going to be black bear!

Kathleen

both my husband and I felt so dumb when we finally came to the obvious conclusion. I am going to hike out there later to see if they are contained yet and replenish the feeder. I don't expect them to be put up. I wouldn't say that the owners have a great history with animal husbandry. their horses and one donkey were nearing starvation at the time we moved in. very gaunt and stripping trees down to eat   

ah very lean pork

I was considering building a catch pen around the deer feeder or somewhere nearby and feed them up a bit before dispatching them. they might be a bit tastier after a few weeks of minimal activity.

I didn't see the escapees last night but took a few pics of their still contained brethren.

as you can see the fencing is far from bad. quite good actually. cattle panels and chain link. I really suspect the other two were released on purpose. but I sometimes think the worst of people. a bad habit of mine.

Leah Sattler wrote:
I really suspect the other two were released on purpose. but I sometimes think the worst of people. a bad habit of mine.

Yeah...me too. But it's hard not to think the worst when you're right, like 95% of the time! That's my situation anyways. I listen to my "gut". It's rarely wrong. On the odd occasion when I didn't listen...I really regretted it!!! 

Those pigs look like they got some good eating flesh on their bones. The loose ones may taste even better! I think your DH needs to do a little hunting this weekend! 

well. I may have judged too quickly. at least one has been recaptured. we won't shoot them as long as we can determine that they weren't released on purpose and they intend to put them back up. or at the very least we will give them a chance to get them put back up. won't wait forever though.

  Arent they pretty. Leah you'll end up as a novelist at this rate.
  Brenda Groth do you really know how to make your own bacon, and why don't you open a forum on  how?
    I saw a documentary on some people who had a, save donkeys, oriject as well as a dairy farm in Catalonia. They let them loose into the woods everyday and said they kept the woods clear . Don't they need donkeys in California, wandering on their hills, to reduce the fire risk. Over pasurising and creating desertification is one ill, having so much vegetation you have terrible fires is another. agri rose macaskie. 

That fencing obviously was not made by paul wheaton it woud have been made of really chunky bits of lumber if he had made it. agri rose macaskie.

leah sattler i bet that really hard to escape fencing is yours you have got yourself two little wild pigs to make paul wheaton really blue with jealousy. Are wild pigs boar? agri rose macaskie.

It seems many wild pigs are collectively referred to as "wild boars" but I think technically the males are the boars.

that fencing is better then I would put probably too! its possible they escaped while being fed though.