Muskoka Critters

Yesterday I visited a friend of mine who lives on the Muskoka River.  It was a beautiful sunny day with a light breeze.

When we arrived in the late afternoon, we noticed a baited trap out in his yard along with a .22 rifle at the ready. When we enquired what he was trying to catch, he told me red squirrels because they were making themselves a nuisance all around his yard.  He confirmed that once he trapped them he was going to shoot them dead.  A few months previously, I had a problem with raccoons in the attic.  A mama raccoon had taken up residency and had just given birth to babies.  I waited a couple of months for the raccoon babies to grow large enough to survive on their own before humanely coaxing them out.  I was struck by the differences between the Muskoka and the Toronto approach.

At my folks' building in Muskoka, we have Abell Pest Control on retainer.  They treat the building on a monthly basis, primarily for mice and ants.  There are traps all around the perimeter and those traps kill the mice and the ants.  We are very happy with them and feel pest control is an essential service for any commercial or industrial building.  Our tenants are happy not having to deal with the nuisance of pests in the building.

That being said, the building is never completely free of pests.  I was heading to our General Manager's office on the mezzanine level the other day and out of the corner of my eye saw something slithering on the floor.  "Reinhard, can you please come here...now!!"  The snake had wandered in through an open door on the gorgeous summer day and had decided to mount the steps.  It was a garter snake, more scared than I was, and Reinhard indicated the biggest risk was that it would pee on him when he relocated it back outside.

Fishers are common around our building and they pose a significant risk to cats and little dogs.  They are vicious and efficient killers and one of our staff lost his wife's small dog to one last year.  The fellow who lives in the building has two beautiful Siamese cats and he indicated they've come back with bites and scratches after their nightly adventures and he worries they may go out some night and never come back.  The gal who runs Muskoka Yarn Connection had a fisher wander into her old store.  It took three days to remove him and during that time he completely destroyed the store.

​The same gentleman who was killing squirrels told me with admiration about his neighbour, Sure Shot, who could kill anything with tremendous accuracy using his .22 rifle with silenced bullets.  He then rated the taste of beaver, muskrat, bear, moose, deer and rabbit, telling me that rabbit was his favourite.

There are significant differences between Muskoka and Toronto and I am enjoying bridging the two worlds on a weekly basis.