This has been a very bad week for blogging, thanks to the utter incompetence of Centurylink, my nominee for worst company in America. This morning, I reconnected the old modem / router, grateful that I am inefficient, and had not yet mailed it back. For now, I do have internet service, no thanks to those idiot tech support charlatans who have wasted several of the limited hours I have left in my life. Apologies that this did not get out last night…
It was a very brisk morning, and the horses were wild, which was good, since Fred was coming to shoe. They loosened themselves up nicely, romping and playing over the frosty fields.
Peace at last
All cats were accounted for, and I went to check the trap, with hopes of finding the twin possum, wanting to get it out of the hay barn and reunite it with the previous day’s catch.
No joy. Instead of a placid possum, I had trapped an irate raccoon. Yikes! We got it into the back of the truck, taking both of us to lift the trap, and set off west.
This is not an opossum
On our way to Reifsnider, we saw a few deer varmints. Like opossums and raccoons, for all the nuisance they can cause, they are all beautiful creatures in their own ways.
It was disconcerting to have the sheriff’s car fall in behind us on Schuetzenground Road. I am pretty sure it is not acceptable to relocate a wild animal. Luckily, he did not turn into Reifsnider, so we continued on our mission. Ignorance of the law notwithstanding, we were determined to get this varmint out of our life. Then, to our dismay, there were several other visitors to the wildlife area, including a work crew mowing the very place we had planned our release. Undeterred, we drove further into the woods to find another spot.
This varmint is not afraid of me 
Freedom!!
Unlike the gentle possum, this raging raccoon had ripped a metal handle off the trap and had torn a plastic food bowl into microscopic tiny pieces. It was ready to get the hell outta Dodge, and we were gratified to see it run like a Breeder’s Cup contender. I do think it will be happy in these beautiful woods, once it calms down. We were also relieved to get ourselves outta there without being confronted.
A perfect place for a raccoon
Home again, I brought the horses in for Fred to shoe them. As always, we had a fun time, and I remain immensely grateful to have such a talented craftsman for our measly few horses. Shoeing is one of the most important elements of managing performance horses, and we are incredibly fortunate to have Fred in charge of that.
We are assured of laughs whenever Fred is here 
Oisin gets a pedicure 
Derry loves coming over to see Fred 
Hot fitting 
Derry’s foot , hot fitted, and ready for nailing the shoe 
Fred 
Derry and Jane head home
By the time I cleaned the barn and spent another torture session on the phone with Centurylink tech support (to no avail), the day was over.
Best part of the day, relaxing with Harry
Stay safe, stay well. Peace.
We have a wifi service called cyber wifi. We gave up on centurylink two years ago. If you want the information I’ll gladly share.
The varmint possibly reflected your sentiments about CenturyLink? I hope you get as clear of the wasteful incompetence as you helped your raccoon/wrong possum to be! Lively post there for the frisky new colder temps!
I have a horsey friend who actually feeds raccoons. She has quite a few of them. One had babies in the barn and she was thrilled. I guess it takes all kinds.