Berry Thief

With the honey bees help, we had a bumper crop of blue berries and raspberries this year. The berry patch is on a raised bed filled with many year's accumulation of sawdust. A slowly leaking soaker hose provides constant dampness. The dogs love to lie in the soft, cool, moist shade under the bushes. Every year I plan on the birds getting the bush top berries and the dogs nibbling on the berries they can easily reach by merely lifting their heads. I get the middle. Last year without bees we did not have any berries. I am determined not to have to buy berries again this year. However, I wasn't the only one to take notice of all the ripe berries. Overnight a huge percent were gone. You'd think scarecrow Anne's skin condition would be enough to frighten anything away from my berries.But no - so I added Mylar streamers to scare the birds and a live trap to get the pesky, garden raiding raccoons.To my surprise a very pissed off fox and telltale blue poop were in the trap. The fox did not cower. It charged whenever approached. After admiring the fox, all the while getting hissed and growled at, I put the trap in the garden trailer and took it for a bumpy ride over the ridge to the back pond. I have never seen a fox up that close. It was really beautiful. But, I knew it could do some serious damage to my berry patch and am sure could just as easily do serious damage to a dog. I let the fox go in the meadow by the pond. Hopefully the trap experience along with it's tranquil new home will dissuade the fox from coming back to raid my berries.

Now to get rid of those pesky raccoons...