I forgot today was Saturday, until I was reminded...which is always an interesting sign that I'm starting to lose track of the days, and so early into the season.. Anyhow, today was Wilbur's day off, and so I spent a fair amount of time looking up the hill to see what was going on. I was rewarded with a sighting of another dog with 2, and since he wasn't up in arms over it's arrival, I tend to think it was a girl. 2 has a soft spot for girls..
The highlight of today was that I caught a gs, and today could do something about it, since I'd come prepared..John let me go ahead and see if I could mark it by myself, and it soon became very apparent that I couldn't. I was fine with the initial process of obtaining his weight; which is of course the easy part. I took a bag designed for weighing gs, put the end around the trap, and prodded him into it. I had weighed the bag alone (150 grams), and once he was in it, weighed it again (460 grams), which gave me his poundage, or gramage if we're being proper (310! What a porker!). It was only after that ritual that things went awry. Within 2.5 seconds of me opening the bag, I had a loose gs in the car. Fortunately for me, he seemed as dismayed by the situation as I did, and attempted to blend into the upholstery. I simply reached over, grabbed him (he alarm squeaked, I can't say called, because it was so much higher pitched than normal), and replaced him into the trap. I then called John, and somewhat shamefacedly told him that I couldn't handle a 310 gram squirrel; although in my defense, they wiggle like crazy when you do have a hold of them, and I didn't want to suffocate him in a choke hold. John hopped in to help, and in no time, had the squirrel, soon to be number four, in a immobilizing hold, and I gave him his headgear, in the form of ear tags, numbers 1 and 2. These tags are like in the pd's, they are for identification after the dye wears off. John then stretched him out, he struggled for a few seconds, and then gave up. I painted him with nyanzol dye, which makes a nice black marker, and he was a good boy during the rest of the marking process. I think he might be stud of the year....
The highlight of today was that I caught a gs, and today could do something about it, since I'd come prepared..John let me go ahead and see if I could mark it by myself, and it soon became very apparent that I couldn't. I was fine with the initial process of obtaining his weight; which is of course the easy part. I took a bag designed for weighing gs, put the end around the trap, and prodded him into it. I had weighed the bag alone (150 grams), and once he was in it, weighed it again (460 grams), which gave me his poundage, or gramage if we're being proper (310! What a porker!). It was only after that ritual that things went awry. Within 2.5 seconds of me opening the bag, I had a loose gs in the car. Fortunately for me, he seemed as dismayed by the situation as I did, and attempted to blend into the upholstery. I simply reached over, grabbed him (he alarm squeaked, I can't say called, because it was so much higher pitched than normal), and replaced him into the trap. I then called John, and somewhat shamefacedly told him that I couldn't handle a 310 gram squirrel; although in my defense, they wiggle like crazy when you do have a hold of them, and I didn't want to suffocate him in a choke hold. John hopped in to help, and in no time, had the squirrel, soon to be number four, in a immobilizing hold, and I gave him his headgear, in the form of ear tags, numbers 1 and 2. These tags are like in the pd's, they are for identification after the dye wears off. John then stretched him out, he struggled for a few seconds, and then gave up. I painted him with nyanzol dye, which makes a nice black marker, and he was a good boy during the rest of the marking process. I think he might be stud of the year....
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