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Cherry Blossom

At one side of my yard is my nans old house which is falling in on itself. There's a wrought iron gate into the garden and the bars are just about too close together for my Westie to get in through them. The thing is I have just discovered a set of Westie-sized footprints in the fresh snow leading from the gate to the back door which has a big lump out of the bottom of it. I'm just wonder what it might possibly be? I didn't want to go in as it's too dark now and if the roof is going to fall in on me i'd at least like to see it comming! I didn't want to end up cornering some wild animal either and my dog was with me.

There's no way it was my dog as she hadn't been over there for a few days. How flexible is a fox? Would it be able to squeeze through the bars? I suppose really I'm concerned in case its a cat or the neglected little Jack Russell over the road trying to find shelter . There's also a chance of course that I left the gate open at some stage, I use it as a short cut to get to the water trough in the field but that's really the only reason anyone goes in there. Whatever it is my dog was wanting to stalk it and follow it's trail.

Cherry Blossom

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

I suppose really I'm concerned in case its a cat or the neglected little Jack Russell over the road trying to find shelter .

This is annoying me now, so I'm going to go walk by his house to see if he's there!

Whispered

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

This is annoying me now, so I'm going to go walk by his house to see if he's there!

Was he?

Maybe turn over a box or a plastic bin and stick a blanket and some food in there just in case? Wouldn't do a whol lot of good but might be a bit of shelter.

anniehoo

Any use? The bottom pad of a fox seems to be thinner and a cats doesnt leave nail marks.

Cherry Blossom

Yeah the little JRT was at home, there loads of old furniture still in there so should be comfy enough anyway, I soaked some dog food in a little bit of water and left it on the doorstep. Thanks for the post annihoo but the snow is about 5 inches deep so I can't really determine from it plus my dog wrecked a good bit of it by ploughing through it with her nose to the ground :rolleyes: I'll check the prints on the doorstep in the morning though where there's less snow and inside the door. I just know its around the same size because the spacing of the prints is about the same. The horses and birds were annoyed at something in the hedge a few days ago so it could be a fox or feral cat that's struggling a bit with the weather.

Graces7

anniehoo wrote: »

Any use? The bottom pad of a fox seems to be thinner and a cats doesnt leave nail marks.

That's interesting.. We have had a night visitor here; forgot to bring in a pan of soup ( long story) and it got eaten. And there are tracks that look like fox..... Ah well... as long as no one goes hungry.. Dog has gone ape once or twice at night too

Cherry Blossom

Food was gone this morning, the tracks really aren't clear but if forced to make a guess I would say it's more likely to be a young badger as they appear more rounded with all the toe prints at the front, this is the closest to what it looks like that I can find.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/wildbritain/field_guides/images/animal_tracks_badger.jpg

Should I be feeding badgers? I find it odd that one would need to find refuge in an old house. Is it possible the rest of it's sett have been culled or something and it's been left on its own?

Could still be that it's something else and prints in the snow are just 'smudged' because of the animals movement.

FoxyVixen

hey there, notice you're from the north west, perchance near Sligo/Leitrim border? Pine martins have made a huge appearance in the last two months round our way. Becoming much more daring the little buggers attempting to get into the attic. These wee guys have no fear at all in them, cute to look at but wouldn't want to get too close.

Only my opinion, but because badgers shuffle along when they walk I doubt you'd see clear prints in the snow. Little pine martin bouncing along would leave a clearer print and would be the size of a westie.

Just my two cents. Wouldn't want to corner one though, we set traps and re-released them again. They were indignant at getting caught but they weren't harmed.

FoxyVixen

http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/images/pine_marten_paw_prints_230.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.pinemarten.html&usg=__z4On3uiiyb4NSneq8S_mGmbjwQU=&h=205&w=230&sz=16&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=f1tpnRSPm2KYKM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpine%2Bmartin%2Bprints%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4SVEC_enIE379IE394%26biw%3D1345%26bih%3D516%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=125&ei=Y1P1TPXxFsXQhAfywcSzBQ&oei=Y1P1TPXxFsXQhAfywcSzBQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0&tx=50&ty=78

did a quick google for prints, hope it helps

joyce2009

any more clues to what is there???

Cherry Blossom

No Pine-martins anywhere near here, I have seen the odd stoat but haven't heard of any sightings of them for about 10 tears. My father has reminded me of the alleged local puma that was sighted last year which I'm extremely skeptical of :rolleyes: I think my brother is going in looking tomorrow.

Graces7

FoxyVixen wrote: »

hey there, notice you're from the north west, perchance near Sligo/Leitrim border? Pine martins have made a huge appearance in the last two months round our way. Becoming much more daring the little buggers attempting to get into the attic. These wee guys have no fear at all in them, cute to look at but wouldn't want to get too close.

Only my opinion, but because badgers shuffle along when they walk I doubt you'd see clear prints in the snow. Little pine martin bouncing along would leave a clearer print and would be the size of a westie.

Just my two cents. Wouldn't want to corner one though, we set traps and re-released them again. They were indignant at getting caught but they weren't harmed.

Pine martens are great; we shared a house with a female for some years. it had been empty a while and her "patch" used the chimney and a hole in the front door. Her young used to come in to see us. They tend to be non-aggressive even when cornered.. one of our cats used to try to play with here but she just ran off.