Crazy squirrels are still at it.

[44man]

I have plastic covers over the basement widows. Those set down with steel rounds below grade. All morning squirrels run over one. BANG, BANG, they seem to love it. Sitting here in the basement it is constant. Crazy critters.

[LUBEDUDE]

Sounds like those covers are stepping stones for your squirrels. And they do love to play and chase each other.

[mold maker]

As a long time rock hound I have odd pieces laying all around. Among them are some saphire in matrix that sat on a stump for over a year. Then suddenly the smaller ones disappeared. I caught squirrels eating the matrix and carrying off the remains.
Granted I collected them and only thought of them as oddities because they were decayed to the point they had no value, but since when do squirrels become rock hounds collecting from my stash?
Now these are city squirrels, and not as smart as their country cousins.

[Blackwater]

Squirrels are funny creatures, and I mean that literally. Watching them play with each other is amazing. And I once watched a pair mate, spiraling around the tree with the male following the female, and they'd work their way down, go at it like a woodpecker pecking for treats, and then break apart and pant for a while, then .... spiral up the tree all over again and .... over and over. I nearly fell out of the tree laughing, and trying to suppress my laughter. Didn't see a deer that day, but I got more entertainment than I'd had in quite a while!

So yeah, they ARE strange little critters. I love 'em. My dog loves chasing them. Just had a new well put in due to highway widening taking our community well out, and they didn't come to the treed section of our back yard for a couple of days. My dog was lost without them, and moped around looking for any sign of one. Then today, they were back. I opened the back door and she shot out as if fired from a big Navy gun! She's resting and sleeping on the couch now, planning the afternoon re-match! I love a squirrel stew, or fried squirrel, but just don't have the heart to take these. The big male is one healthy rascal! I think it'd give my 40+ lb. pup a real run for her money! Squirrels are badder than most folks will ever give them credit for. Pick them up while still alive, and they can drive those incisors right through a finger bone and out the other side! And we won't even talk about coons! What an animal! Wildlife is truly amazing if we just get to know them!

[bbs70]

Blackwater you're right, wildlife is amazing, I live in the country, and love to watch squirrels playing in the back yard.
Lived here for 2 months now and for the first time in a lot of years, I saw a mess of Blue Jays eating corn in the yard we had put out for the squirrels.
Can't wait for spring and summer to see what else shows up

[MaryB]

Squirrel hunting with a friend. He dropped a nice big gray and went to grab it. I told him he only hit it and stunned it because there wasn't any blood. He tells me nahh it went through the heart so no blood pumped out. He stuck it in his back game pouch and about 30 minutes later he thought the devil was eating his spine! That was one mad squirrel when he finally got the vest off and shook him out! I was laughing so hard I couldn't shoot it. Squirrel ripped the pouch up, went through his sweatshirt and managed a couple nice scratches on his back.

[texasnative46]

MaryB,

LOL.

Fwiw, I once shot a squirrel, put him in a sack with 8 of his "friends" in the back of the station wagon to go back to the cabin where I had planned to dress the 9 bushy-tails. = The big Fox-squirrel "woke up" & like to have torn the back of the SW up before I could open the back hatch, whereupon he immediately left the area..
(Even these over 3 decades later, I still think that was FUNNY.)

yours, tex

[starmac]

Growing up I was with two different kids that required stiches from squirrels.
One shot one off the top of a telephone pole with his sling shot and just picked it up with out checking to make sure irt was dead.
The other was at a large boyscout camp and city kid that he was cornered one in a storage building and grabbed it, something I doubt he ever tried again.
Once I shot one on my way out of the woods with my old single barrel 12 guage. It was not totally dead so I leaned the gun against a big old oak tree.
The next weekend I was getting ready to head back out for the weekend, and I did not have my shotgun anymore. At first I thought it had been stolen, then thought about the last time I fired it, and sure enough, it was right there leaning against that tree when I got back to it.

[blackthorn]

I still have a scar on the web of my hand between the base of my thumb and first finger. I shot a squirrel out of a willow and went over and picked it up. There was no visible bullet hole and I was looking to see where it was hit. I found a streak of hair missing across the top of its head just about the same time it woke up! A split second later, the squirrel had bitten through my leather mitten as well as the heavy home knitted mitt inside and got his teeth stuck through the web of my hand. After it had been dispatched by strangulation, I had to pry its teeth apart to get it off my hand. Not fun!

[Blackwater]

They don't call 'em "WILD" animals for nothin', do they? I remember old timers used to knock their heads over their gun barrels or against a good, solid tree before putting them into their game bags. I guess they never realized that we "younguns" didn't know enough to ask why they did that? Looking back, I see just how dumb I really was growing up! They set the example, and just assumed we'd figure out why they did things the way they did. I guess we were just as dumb as a box of rocks? Yeah, they're "wild" alright! And they defend themselves however they CAN! And if we're not prepared to anticipate eventualities, we get to tell lots of "funny" stories around the campfire! At least we have that!

[44man]

Only animal that won't bite is a cotton tail. They just kick.

[starmac]

It does not have to be an animal. One time I was cleaning catfish and holding one on the chopping block while I cut it's head off with a hatchet. I had probably done this a thousand times, but somehow it wiggled hust as I hit it, and drove the fin on it's back completely through my hand. A friend turned to see why I was makeing a funny noise, and nearly turned white when he realized I was holding up the fish, without holding it. lol Probably because of the pain I could not pull it off myself, and had to get him to jerk it off my hand.

Another time commercial fishing I took a catfish out of a net, which we had learned the day before was highly illegal if we crossed the yellow line in the river with it in the boat. The day before we took 42 white bass out of a net on the right side of the river, with the game warden watching, then proceeded to the other side to run a net. He came over and nailed up for crossing the center line, which we didn't at the time know it was illegal, but it was the county line. We went before the judge that evening and he was lenient and just fined us 212 bucks apiece, in other words, just for one fish, but with the understanding that we would have to pay for the other 41 if we were caught for any other violations.

Since we had been fishing that stretch of river for 3 months without seeing the game warden, I figure it would be awhile before we saw him again. My thinking was flawed, deer season had just ended and he had now turned his attention to the river and even explained he did not want commercial fishermen on his river.
I pulled a nice catfish out of a net, which was rare as we were fishing for buffalo and that is what the nets were set up for. I threw it on top of the pile of buffalo, about the time the game warden came around a bend, right on top of us. All I had time to do was sit down on it before he came along side, which drove the fin to the hilt in my but cheek. He tied up to us and we started drifting down river, while he checked our licenses, life jackets, etc. Luckily the licenses were kept in a sealed 5 gallon bucket that doubles as the drivers seat, so I didn't have to move. Everytime that fish wiggled, it felt like someone was using a branding iron on me, but hard as it was, with something north of 8 grand apiece , I had to sit there and shoot the breeze, with a straight innocent face, which was hell to do.
When he finally left us, I stood up and the fish came with me, my partner had to pull it off.
That is something he will probably never forget, and something I know I never will.
Just a couple of crazy fish stories.

[Blackwater]

Wow! I can't imagine the pain of a big cat driving its fins all the way through your hand! I hope I NEVER find out what THAT is like! There are all sorts of ways to get hurt in the boonies. Those who don't respect the dangers get pretty well acquainted with them pretty quickly. Snakes are the big fear around here in my neck of the woods. And they CAN be very hard to see. I've got pretty darn good "woods eyes," but my wife found a modest sized rattler in a pile of dead leaves, and she pointed at it three times without my being able to see it, and then it moved. It's funny how you can not understand how you didn't see it after it moves! Not seeing a rattler or moccasin can lead to having a VERY bad day! So far, I'm unscathed, despite having spent way more than my share of time in the woods. I'd really like to keep it that way! But eternal vigilance is the only way to even have a hope of it staying that way. We've killed them in our back yard, and my Mom literally leapt over one that had placed itself alongside the lowest step on our back porch steps once. She was deathly afraid of snakes, and it took a while to get her calmed down so that she wasn't shaking any more. I was never afraid of them until I nearly got bitten once. That'll change a fella's attitude while he's still hanging in the air! Did mine!

Life's never quite a bowl of cherries, and especially when we're in the woods or on the waters. One needs to know HOW to do things in the safest possible way, and even then, you'll still get little stuff hurting you. But if you're dilligent, you CAN avoid the big stuff, and if somebody with you can't, at least you'll know what to do to help minimize the effects. Y'all be careful out there!

[MaryB]

Dang catfish spines hurt! Drove one thru the web by the thumb and first finger trying to get a 30 pounder out of the net. Duct tape and a hunk of paper towel to stop the bleeding and keep on fishing!

[Blackwater]

Sorry, Mary, but I had to laugh at your story. Reminded me of the time I caught about an 8 lb. dogfish (grindle, bowfin, etc.) and had it in the net across my knees. I reached back to get the pliers from Dad in the back of the boat, and had my right hand hanging down inside the net, like a wet washrag, and that @#$%^^^& fish chose THAT precise milisecond to thrash about with its mouth open, and those spike-like teeth, powered by their VERY strong jaws, clamped down on the tip of my middle finger. Naturally, I snatched my finger back, which left several gashes that ran out towards the fingertips. Talk about bleeding! I used a hanky and all the paper I could find, and wrapped it with electrical tape (all we had then) and kept on fishing. That finger throbbed so hard for so long, it gave me a splitting headache, and I was actually kind'a relieved when it was time to head back to the landing. Got home and Mom washed it out GOOD with alcohol, which hurt just as bad as the original damage, then wrapped it up nice and tight with some gauze. I just reconciled myself to its hurting for a while, and in a week or 10 days, it was nearly back to normal. For a while, I wondered if I was going to lose that fingertip! If Mom hadn't cleaned it out so thoroughly (at the cost of MUCH pain!), I guess it's possible I might have. She was a pretty good doc. Had to be with a son like me!

I've hated dogfish with a bloody blue passion ever since! And I don't yet feel like changing my mind about that! This was about 50 years ago now, and I'm still not over it. Just glad I didn't get the hooks in me too! Lure had 3 sharp trebles!

[MaryB]

Oh yeah, I was trying to get the hook out of a northern pikes mouth when it decided my finger was lunch. I didn't jerk back and held on tight so when it thrashed it didn't shred my finger. Dad pried its jaws open with a screwdriver... I cleaned it good and kept on fishing. I also got revenge at supper time! That pike was 4 1/2 pounds of good eating!

[starmac]

I pushed a friends boat off from the bank one night and then jumped in BAREFOOTED. The woods came right down to the river bank and it was about as dark as it can get. It was super quiet on the river, But I bet if there was anybody on the water within 5 miles thay heard me yell. My friend thought I had jumped in the middle of a trot line, but I told him no, whatever had me is way worse than hooks. He rounded up a flashlight and what had happened was his floor had cracked and my foot slid under the fiberglass floor, but left the big toenail laying in the floor beside it.

[DLCTEX]

When I lived in south La. I was fishing in the surf with a friend and we were really catching the sea trout. I hooked a small hard head catfish and carefully avoided the spines while unhooking it. Wanting to throw it away from my line, I gave it an overhead throw while standing chest deep in water. As I opened my hand at the top of the throw it flipped and drove a spine through my hand, pushing up the skin on the back of my hand. I couldn't pull it out, so my friend yanked it out. I was determined to keep fishing, but a few minutes of the throbbing pain of the poison in my hand put me to head home.

[Blackwater]

This needs some stretching to fit in here, but I went shrimping in my little Jon boat once, and had a cooler full nearly to the brim. Was using a cast net. I decided to go. But then, at the last second, decided to throw "just one more time." I'd taken off my nice Citizen dress diver's watch, but had put it back on. Rather than take it off, I reasoned, "Nothing's gonna' happen in just one throw." Yep. You guessed it. Last I saw of that watch was with the band trailing it like a kite's tail, headed for Davy Jones' locker. I really liked that watch. So the tide was just coming in good, and I decided to dive for it. I was near a bank and some reeds, and knew pretty close to where it should have been. The water was about 5' deep there, so I could use my toes to find it, then dive down and save it. Being a diver's watch, it should only require a good rinsing to get it back in ship shape, right? WRONG! But let me not get ahead of myself.

I put the anchor out on the shore to keep the boat in position, and dived in after removing my billfold, etc. The tide was coming in increasing the swiftness of the water and it was getting deeper. I was dancing like a balerina, tippy toeing on the bottom like a cat on a hot tin roof, and struggling to keep up with the now pretty good current. And all of a sudden, I have no idea how or why, I just KNEW I needed to get out of the water. My hair stood on end like a cat's tail when it's angry or scared! I instantly took one long stroke with my right hand, threw up my left and grabbed the gunwale, and rolled myself into the boat in one fluid and VERY quick motion!

Suddenly, I was a lot more consigned to losing a very nice watch, and just bagged up all the unwettables, stowed them so my now wet pants wouldn't spoil them, and headed back to the landing and home. It took a LONG time for the fear I'd felt to leave me. That was bull shark territory, and I'd seen what looked to be a 14' or longer hammerhead attacking a school of fish on a shallow sandbar at the mouth of the creek just a week or two before. Whatever it was, I didn't want to "negotiate" with it! At ALL!!! Some of that stuff in salt water bites HARD, and sometimes, permanently.

That little event has taught me to be much more careful when I go fishing in salt water! And with the gators coming back at my favorite river, I don't imagine I'll be skinny dipping there any more either. Just because you don't SEE big gators, doesn't meant they aren't there! "Assuming" that "everything's gonna' be alright" is how many incidents begin, but some of them end very badly. I'm not nearly as daring as I once was. I figure if God let me survive some of the things I have, it was so I'd learn from them, and not repeat them. I've now done enough that the old "I can do that and get away with it" has been replaced by "that kind of thing is made for a younger and stupider man than I am now." Live and learn, hopefully???

[starmac]

Those hardheads does seem to have a poison that hurts and swells up when finned by them. Old timers had a remedy that just going from the sounds of it doesn't make any sense, but does seem to help..

That is to rub the fish slime off the hard head into the wound, I do not know why but is sure seems to help.

[abunaitoo]

We only have two legged squirrels here.
I like the four legged ones better.