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   There are times when both animals and people set out on a project without thinking through to the end result when they reach their goal. An example of this is when a dog chases a deer. It sounds like a good idea at the time, but what is going to happen if they catch it. The average dog will get pounded into the ground if he is successful at catching a deer.

   Several years ago, we had a large protective outside dog. Duke would guard the premises from all intruders, primarily by barking at them. He was big and scary looking so this is usually all it took to drive off anything that should not be in his territory. One early evening, a raccoon was making its way toward the house when Duke spotted it. The large vicious dog ran toward the raccoon, barking all the way. Rather than turn and run, the raccoon decided to stand its ground. Taken aback by this unusual reaction, Duke hesitated. It was though the dog was thinking, “What do I do now?” He chose to lunge forward and grab the raccoon by the hind quarters. Naturally, the raccoon took immediate offense and sunk his sharp teeth into Duke’s ear. With a yelp, the dog started spinning in circles, realizing he had made a bad choice and was wondering what to do now. I was not about to get involved in that mess. Both the dog and the raccoon had made bad decisions, and they could work it out. Duke released his bite on the raccoon causing it to be carried away by the centrifugal force of the spinning dog, taking a piece of Duke’s ear with him. Both combatants had had enough, and Duke came to me for solace and medical treatment.

   Another of those not so well thought out plans occurred last week. A group of linemen were doing routine maintenance of repairing woodpecker damage to power poles. Woodpeckers will frequently drill holes in the poles, weakening them. This is corrected by filling the damaged area with an epoxy. A hole was discovered on large pole so a lineman went up to investigate. He soon discovered the woodpecker hole had been enlarged by a squirrel. At about sixty feet in the air and a couple of feet away from the pole in his bucket truck, he discovered the squirrel was currently at home. The lineman pulled off his hard hat and quickly covered the hole. That was one of those “what do I do now?” moments. By the sounds emanating from inside the pole, it was easy to tell the squirrel was becoming annoyed. Swinging in a bucket sixty feet in the air is not an ideal place to have a close-up encounter with an angry squirrel. The lineman put his hard hat back on his head and prepared to do battle if necessary. The squirrel stayed inside the pole, making angry noises. Not willing to reach inside the pole to remove the squirrel with the bad attitude, the lineman instructed his ground crew to pound on the base of the pole. This was enough to cause the squirrel to rapidly vacate his home. He jumped out, into the bucket with the lineman and made a quick lap before jumping back onto the pole. From there, he ran down the pole toward the ground crew. Up until then, they thought the whole procedure was quite entertaining. With the angry squirrel rapidly approaching them, the humor was quickly lost and they took off. The last anyone saw of the squirrel, he was making tracks toward the nearby timber at a high rate of speed.

   There are many times in life we make choices and then wonder, now what do I do. Such is the case of trapping a squirrel in his home without a plan or to grab a raccoon without figuring out how to get rid of it after the successful catch.

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