What's In My Trap?
I've managed to thwart several local critters from
terrorizing my garden so far this month.
Here's the tally: 1 groundhog, 2
raccoons, 1 turtle.
The box turtle was my most curious catch. He appeared in my live animal trap yesterday.
I had moved the trap out of the grass
beside my garden so I could mow. The
trap hadn't been baited with cantaloupe for over a week. I had stowed the trap between two rows of
tomato plants until I got around to repositioning it to the terror zone. But yesterday morning, I was surprised to see
a cute box turtle happily chomping on a dried cantaloupe rind. I picked him up and showed him to my wife
before releasing him to go on his merry way right beside the sprung trap.
Later in the afternoon, I decided to go back to my garden to
see if he was still hanging around. I
wandered through my garden but didn't spot him. A few rows away from where I
left him, I found a low-growing, half-eaten Tigerella tomato. The bottom had been devoured, leaving the top
half still on the vine. I cursed the
raccoon or groundhog that sneaked past my trap and my fishing line perimeter
and my heat sensitive water cannon (The Scarecrow). I continued past my garden to my unruly
compost pile. I had forgotten to collect
bowl I had used that morning to dump today's fresh cantaloupe and watermelon
rinds. As I reached down for it, who should I see smiling up at me? The box turtle. That's when it occurred to me. That thieving turtle had robbed me of one of
my first Tigerella tomatoes before sprinting to the rich compost pile. I shook my head sadly and turned away,
leaving him to his feast. Maybe he will
just stay there and eat his golden treats.
