Oh NO, Rosie Roo!

[bunn]

Pp let Rosie out into the garden for her late-night pee.  20 seconds later I hear barking growling and snarling in the garden, but by the time I had got over there, there was silence, and before I could find some shoes, she came hurtling back in again, with a cut on her nose and smelling VERY STRONGLY of some animal musk.

It doesn't smell like fox, so after some thought, I conclude that Rosie has probably encountered a badger in the garden.  Thank goodness she got away with only a cut.

Go AWAY badgers!   Rabbits in the garden I can tolerate, but I draw the line at carnivores with honking big claws. 

Comments

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, I hope that she will be OK. I am told that badgers are very fierce.

Our late senior cat in his declining years came running back in with a sore eye. The scary part was that the vet just said casually, "Oh yes, cobra; usually it's dogs". Dogs will apparently attack a cobra, and get actually bitten, whereas cats will usually back off. Cobras are notoriously cranky too, and the ones around this region spit.

He was OK after antibiotics and everything, and didn't lose the eye, so we think it was just a baby, and he must have basically tripped over it and been spat at, being absent-minded at the best of times and more so as he aged.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Cobras! D-: I suppose that cobras and cats both like the same sort of quiet sunny spots...

Fortunately it looks like the badger-scratch has healed nicely, it swole up a bit but has gone down again now.

I am now going out into the garden before the dogs and announcing "Badgers! Dogs are coming!" Which probably sounds a bit mad at midnight but hey.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I see it as similar to the practice of hikers wearing a bell to alert large predators (such as bears and mountain lions) to their presence, to avoid unpleasant surprises.

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

We think it happened near the compost heaps, which are nice and warm and good places for them to lay their eggs...

I'm glad she's better! Actually going out and shouting is not mad at all. It makes perfect sense to give warning for anything that might not want to meet you. I am told that Australians are taught to walk very heavily in overgrown areas, to let snakes know that they are coming (also presumably to announce that they are too big to be useful prey).