Saturday, December 10, 2005

Treed By a Beaver

Pirate’s Cove (linked on the sidebar) had a post about being Chased by a Beaver. That led me to the original article out of Virginia. Seems a rabid beaver chased some folks around the park a bit before the animal control people showed up. The scary thing about the newspaper article is that there have been 22 cases of rabid animals in Orange County this year.
It is unusual to see a rabid herbivore like a beaver but his one seems to have been bitten by something else.

A number of years ago, four of us walked into a beaver pond north of Hunter Mountain, NY, to do some duck hunting. We walked in while it was still dark and set ourselves around the perimeter of the pond so we could ambush the ducks we expected to show up with first light. While it was still dark, one of the guys suddenly fired his shotgun. And then again. Since there were no calls for help, I stayed on post until it got light enough to see. (Don't want to sneak up on someone in the dark when you know he's got a shotgun.)

Upon investigation, I learned that he had been approached in the dark by a rabid raccoon. He shot it once at about 15 yards with the bird shot he had with him but it kept on coming so he had to shoot it again. He said the beast was growling and snuffling and popping its teeth like a miniature bear. Let me tell you, that can be very scary in the dark. And stink! I have never smelled an animal that stunk so bad! And that includes when I’ve had t dress out a deer whose stomach has been opened by a broadhead during the bow season.

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