At 4:04 this morning, I was awakened by the sound of the trap door dropping closed, followed by loud thrashing. As there was none of the squealing I expected, I figured we had caught anything but the Lone Ranger. I was wrong.Handsome and I grabbed our flashlights, went out the front door, and immediately knew that we finally had the beast that ruined our front yard.
We had to wait until 6:00 to contact Jason, but made the call as soon as we could. His cell phone was (as expected) turned off, but we received a call back around 6:30 to let us know that they were on their way. As fate would have it, just as they drove in the yard it started to pour down rain, so it got to be a mucky, muddy process.
By the time they got here, hog had already pushed the top loose from the rest of the trap, but thankfully hogs are not big jumpers so he was waiting for them when they arrived. From there, he was snared, hog tied, muzzled and dragged to the truck. It all seemed so unceremonious, but after all...what did he expect? He was mean-tempered, and as Jason told us from a message left by a previous trapper - a notched ear - this hog was not unfamiliar with a trap. That explains why it took a whole week to lure him into this one. We were lucky that he was duly tempted by the fermented corn and watermelon to take the bait.
After about 25 minutes, Jason was able to safely remove him from the trap. And to add insult to injury, the Lone Ranger was dragged through the mess he'd made in our yard...all 200 pounds or so of him. Jason was exhausted by the time he finally lifted the hog up into his truck for transport, but he didn't stop until he had used our hose to cool the hog down with water. He knew that the hog was hot and tired, too.
The hog left our property to live on a farm about 45 minutes north of us. He won't be back again, but the trap will stay here for another couple of weeks to make sure there isn't a Tonto waiting in the woods.
I never dreamt that this would be a major topic when I started my blog, but now you have a real peek into my life. It's not all girly lacy, frilly, yarny and crafty. Sometimes, it's just down and dirty. But, I'll tell you, my friends, this is also what makes my life with Handsome so joyful. The unexpected events we share and how we deal with them.
These words are a link to the last of the hog saga photos. I also have a link for you to a video of the hog capture. You can click on the title of this post to get to the video. Welcome to my world!
