Predators

    

 Farmers have to defend their livestock and sometimes that doesn't always look pretty. Stray dogs, coyotes, raccoons, feral hogs, and sometimes things you would never expect. This hog has been running my goats along the fence lines for days, but not again tomorrow. There is a small herd of feral hogs that like the help themselves to our animals, neighbor's smalls dogs/ cats, and whatever else they can muster up to eat. My neighbor has been missing her small cat for a few days now. I'm 95% sure one of these took her out. I missed my chance to shoot it the other day. I only had my pistol with me and that was certainly a rifle range. 

    Feral hogs are dangerous and can become aggressive when startled. I have had my fair share of run ins with them. Once, when I was 15 I had one chase me all the way up to the truck and continued to ram dad's Dodge in hopes that I would fall off. In my youth, my father and grandfather would hunt them using hounds. They would have had a field day if they would have been alive to see what these devils do now. There are no current bag limits on them in my state, so it's fair game to take them out. 

    Man do they smell. I didn't have to see what was down there at night, because I could smell their foulness before I ever approached the lower fence line. This was a bore, so the others might all be female. I have started carrying my rifle with me in the afternoons as I put out hay. I'm glad my husband took out this bigger one, because it's the one that stalks the fence line. I can tell because of the with blaze down it's face and chest. The others are all black and dark brown.