The Landlord, The Lion, and the Lame Piglet
April 10, 2021 – Our landlord came out to check on things and see how the farm was progressing. I always enjoy getting information about the property and hearing his stories about when his family lived here. I keep asking him whether he objects to any of my ideas and he seems to be on board with just about everything. I think he is as happy to have found someone to do the work around the property as I am to have stumbled upon a landowner that will let me pursue my dreams.
At Sasquatch Wallows the excitement never stops. As we were winding up our conversation, we heard the unmistakable death squeals of the piglets and sows letting us know that the mountain lion was attacking. We took off running down Shakedown Street to see the damage. Turns out the mountain lion took one of Bacon’s piglets.
I really hate this mountain lion! There is only one solution:
We searched for signs of the mountain lion and finally picked up his tracks just below Careful Creek Crossing on Lower Shakedown Street. We only found a couple prints before he veered off the road towards the creek. We didn’t have any guns or dogs with us, so we looped back up to the house before continuing the hunt.
After getting armed and rounding up the dogs, we headed down the south property line trying to out flank the mountain lion at the creek. I was hoping the dogs would get on the lion’s trail and flush him out so we could get a shot at him. They failed. But they did find another one of his kill sites right off the game trail he took down to the creek.
Ironically, the sows and piglets were attacked at the top of their paddock. So they regrouped at the bottom of the paddock cowering in fear that night.
April 11, 2021 – We thought that we had gotten away with just the one piglet gone. However, the next night doing chores we noticed that one of the piglets was limping. The whole side of his leg was ripped open. He was putting some weight on it, eating, and engaging with the herd. I’m going to possibly give him some antibiotics and watch him closely to see how he does.