The Snow Tells it All
(Internet Published) Feb 2001
A man does not need to be an Apache Indian to read signs. On my visits to my
old place, a smallholding well away from dwellings, I often detect the stink
of foxes or cats. Both are disgusting stinks and they remind me that these
predators are nocturnal visitors to my loft area. It would not be advisable
to leave any pigeons out all night down there.
When the snow falls the footprints of nocturnal intruders who have visited
my loft prospecting for a kill amaze me. Rat, Fox, Stoat and Cat sign - all
of which are predators - are frequent visitors to my loft. In other parts of
the world the Racoon can be added to the list. A couple of years ago a
certain Sheffield man had about 40 pigeons killed by rats over a period of
only a very few days. Such pigeons were eaten alive. The same fate happened
to hundreds of Fowls and Ducks right here close to where I keep pigeons in
Sheffield, England. Foxes and Rats were the culprits.
Well, it's all due to apathy and ignorance. If we keep domestic livestock we
must educate ourselves and learn to protect them. If a man cannot out-smart
rats, foxes, cats, etc., how can he outsmart the rogues and sharks that
prevail within the human race? I think that Confucius said that the Gods
take care of men who take care of themselves.