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Guess this is better than the skunk. Sad part is the little critter was dead. It wasn't there this morning. Had to have come in within the past few hours. I suspect it starved to death. My understanding of them is they need to eat almost constantly and if they do not find food will die in a matter of just a few hours.
The link is to my photobucket album. It contains 4 pictures, figured I'd do it that way instead of posting each picture individually. I made this one public so no password needed. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures. Turned out I left the good camera at our ND house.
I have never seen a shrew, but I don't want to see a dead one.
There was a character from "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats from Nimh" who was a shrew. I think that is what the book was called. I never saw the movie, but that is all I know about shrews. They are supposed to be cranky.
They are as Woodrow says, a high metabolism and must constantly eat. And their fur is some
of the softest I've ever felt.
Moles also have very soft fur. I wonder if it's from both of them living underground...
Your cats probably caught it and brought it in. Mine are always bringing me dead shrews/voles/field mice and etc. They love to put them right where I step down a stairstep so I'll land right on the dead body. Usually barefoot.
Woodrow, I meant to ask you about the skunk - aren't you worried about it having rabies? I live just a couple of hours south of you on a farm in South Dakota, and both skunks and raccoons in my area carry the rabies virus. Even if your cats are vaccinated, you aren't, and humans can get rabies from contact with the saliva of an infected animal.
OP, I wish I could be as calm as you about finding a little dead animal inside my house ... I would be trying hard not to vomit as I covered the corpse with about 3 plastic grocery bags before picking it up with my gripper (so I can stay several feet away) and disposing of it in a trash bag, which I would immediately take outside to the garbage can. Then I would try to get the image out of my head ...
I had a shrew in one of my mouse traps in my garage this spring. Very long pointy snout and sharp little teeth on that guy.
I also caught 3 moles in traps this fall just outside my basement door. I do wonder what they were doing next to my basement door...trying to get in, perhaps.
Have not caught any more mice in a few weeks, though, so that's good news!
I saw a shrew come out of a tiny hole in my fenced back yard this summer. While he was trundling around the yard in search of food, I petted him several times. His fur was so soft and silky, and he never even turned his face up to object - it was amazing. I think they like my back yard because the soil has so many worms in it.
Your cats probably caught it and brought it in. Mine are always bringing me dead shrews/voles/field mice and etc. They love to put them right where I step down a stairstep so I'll land right on the dead body. Usually barefoot.
Woodrow, I meant to ask you about the skunk - aren't you worried about it having rabies? I live just a couple of hours south of you on a farm in South Dakota, and both skunks and raccoons in my area carry the rabies virus. Even if your cats are vaccinated, you aren't, and humans can get rabies from contact with the saliva of an infected animal.
After I started leaving the food on a table, the skunk stopped coming around. While I do have concerns about rabies with any wild mammal. There is very little risk of contracting it unless you are bitten by the animal.
Quote:
Rabies travels from the brain to the salivary glands during the final stage of the disease—this is when an animal can spread the disease, most commonly through a bite.
Rabies can’t go through unbroken skin. People can get rabies only via a bite from a rabid animal or possibly through scratches, abrasions, open wounds, or mucous membranes in contact with saliva or brain tissue from a rabid animal.
The rabies virus is short-lived when exposed to open air—it can only survive in saliva and dies when the animal’s saliva dries up.
If you handle a pet who has been in a fight with a potentially rabid animal, take precautions such as wearing gloves to keep any still-fresh saliva from getting into an open wound.
Prior to moving north I was living in Texas where Rabies is almost epidemic. While it is a very dreadful disease and usually fatal, there is no need for morbid fear. In Texas when I lived in the boondocks in Anderson County I came across rabid skunks and coyotes quite often. The skunk that was raiding the cat food showed none of the neurological signs of rabies, of course with any rabid animal in the early stages there are no symptoms. But then again the animal can only transmit the disease when it is in the final stages of rabies.
Contact your vet ask where you can get a Rabies Shot. My vet paid for me & his assit to have them. Hunters in my area also get them. Health Dept gives them just before hunting season. Shot in the arm is better than the bunch I had as a kid when a Bat bit me as a kid.
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