Wild Critters

Every so often I'll pick up a city newspaper and see that a coyote, fox, or other such wild critter has been spotted in the city.  It's always big news when that happens.  I always think it's a bit weird for city folk to get so excited about wildlife, since I see wild critters fairly often on the farm.  Eventually I remember that most people living in the city aren't used to seeing wildlife on a regular basis, so it is big news.  And, every once in a while, I see a wild critter that I don't see often and I get excited too.

Today was a day like that.  Actually, let's back this story up to Sunday morning.  My sister and I had to stop at Co-op to pick up a couple of cakes before church.  The cakes were in honour of our parents' 25th wedding anniversary and would be served at the potluck after church.  I had the heavier cake, so by the time we got to the car, all I wanted to do was set the cake in the car and give my arms a rest.  Janna opened the trunk of the car and there it was: a massive nest.  Janna stopped just short of setting her cake on the fluffy mound and stood staring at it.  "What is that?" she asked.  With my cake seeming to weigh more with each second, I answered with an impatient, "It's a mouse nest of course!  Just put the cakes in the back seat!"  Of course, my sister was none too impressed with the idea that there might be a mouse running around in the car as she was driving it, but I was really just too worried about being late for church to care much.  Once we got to church, we reported the nest to my dad.  After church, my sister went home with my parents and I drove the "infested" car home by myself, slowing a little to admire a moose on the side of the road on the way.  Later that afternoon, my dad put a live trap in the car and cleaned the nest out of the trunk.

Fast forward two days.  Janna and I were sitting in front of the television, each working on our own tasks, when we heard Dad come in form outside.  "Girls, I need some advice!"  What?  Dad never needs advice (unless we're telling him what to wear for family pictures).  We sauntered into the porch and I noticed that he had brought the live trap into the house with him.  A second glance revealed something small and white in the trap.  Where I come from, mice are not white.  What on earth?  "What is that, Dad?"  I asked.  "It's that ermine," he replied, referring to a small, weasel-like critter he had seen in the garage a few weeks ago.  We spent several minutes debating whether it actually was an ermine or not, since we couldn't get a good look at it through the small holes of the trap.  We finally decided that Dad and I would take it out to a brush pile in the pasture and set it free and I would get pictures of it.  On the way, we decided we'd release in into a 5-gallon bucket first so we could actually get a good look at it.

The cutest, and only, ermine I have ever seen.

Dad and I drove out to the brush pile in the side-by-side, with the trap and bucket in the back.  I got a lovely video of Dad trying to get the ermine out of the trap and into the bucket and then a couple of pictures of the ermine as it explored the bottom of the bucket.  It was so cute that I couldn't help but take another video of it, during which I may have...squeaked...a bit when it jumped out of the bucket.  In the end, we released the ermine into the brush pile.  It was a pretty exciting afternoon, and that ermine was awfully cute, but wild critters do not belong in a car.  Still, that one didn't deserve to die (a mouse would have quickly made the acquaintance of our barn cats).  It's always fun when we can release the wild critters back into the wild and out of the way of our activities on the farm.