11574 Three little piggies

Or not such little piggies!, leaving the house last night we spotted in the headlights 3 wild boar, looked like Mum,Dad and teenager, trotting just in front of us, whilst we knew we had boar down in the gorge at the bottom of our land ,we had in the 3 years never seen them, so it was a treat.
And ironically today for the first time I was chatting to some hunters in the lane, asked them if they had seen any boar today, but seems not, and as I pointed out today is the last day of the season, looks like the family got away with it this time.
A

Category
Gardening & Agriculture

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 11:13

For all of you with dogs, have you ever wondered what your dog would do in a situation where you really needed them? You know, the sort of thing…when the masked axe murderer knocks on your door in the night…

Would your dog, take him a favourite toy? Jump into your lap? or Confront the danger and see it off? I’ve always assumed mine are of the [I]'come on in'[/I] tail wagging kind.

Anyway, one day out for a walk, I heard something up ahead and my puppy (6 months worth of adrenalin and no sense) flushed out a wild boar (picture a 6 kilo puppy after 60 kilo wild boar). And the boar decided it would be safer to turn around and start running at me!!!!!!!!!! :eeeek::eeeek::eeeek:

My other dog (dashing 45 kilo Doberman/Alsation, but still of the tale wagging kind), stood fast. Did not bark his head off, did not give chase but also (more impressively) did not move an inch from my side - Lassie eat your heart out! As the boar approached, he gave a sharp warning bark and the boar ran off.

Later, my neighbours were less interested in my welfare and the heroics of my dog and more interested in potential salami. Exactly where did I see it? How long ago?Did it have tusks? Was it male/female? How big was it? etc. Eventually I was offered a grappa.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 13:18

[quote=Angie and Robert;109631]...whilst we knew we had boar down in the gorge at the bottom of our land ,we had in the 3 years never seen them, so it was a treat...[/quote]
HA! Luck you!

Damn boar are total pest here. Every autumn and winter they come right up to our house – and I do mean as close as a few metres from the door – looking for windfall apples, acorns and whatever else they can get their snouts on.

My first winter here, I had six outside the door. Last winter, we looked out the bedroom window one night and counted eighteen. The major cull during this hunting season (or was it last? I've lost track) has had some effect, but they're still around. I went out to get wood a few weeks back and discovered one peering at me from about three metres from our front door.

I'm not afraid of the things, but they make the most incredible mess rooting up the grassed areas around the house. While I have no interest in a bowling-green lawn, we're on the top of a hill and the grassed areas are virtually all on a slope of some sort, so the furrows and piles of churned up turf the boar create make pushing a mower around a total pain.

Part of the problem is that our place is on one edge of a no-hunting zone. I'm always reluctant to give animals too much credit for intelligence, but they do seem to be aware that this is a safe zone.

I've got so fed up with them that I've decided that we need to fence the place, even though that's not going to be cheap.

Al

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 14:08

Fence the place!

This reminds me of a story of some new people who moved to the Cotswolds and bought a lovely cottage. After they had lived there for a short while they asked the local council if they could get rid of a large rookery in their village because of the noise and the mess.

The council responded that 'when you have been in the village for as long as the rooks then we will consider your request'. The rookery had been there for a few hundred years!

Sorry Alan, but the pigs were there first!:smile:

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 08:39

[quote=Persephone;109666]Fence the place!

Sorry Alan, but the pigs were there first!:smile:[/quote]

Quite agree. That's why I'm happy to share my living room and bedroom with lots of cuddly rats, scuttling scorpions and a complete moving floor of beautiful crunchy cockroaches. Wouldn't dream of keeping them out or killing them - they were, after all, here first!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 11:30

The wild boar do exactly the same damage here Alan, we have no fences apart from a bit of barbed wire to keep the cows out. We do encourage the cacciatori. Such a pity the season is over though!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 14:37

Hi
We also have wild boar here but so far they have not managed to get through, under or over the gate or fence. It's just the porcupines that have managed that - under the fence - they are great diggers/burrowers.They are also great 'collectors'! We kept losing our dog's toys,,,,, they just disappeared from the garden. Then we discovered a hole under the fence and a 'toybox' of toys in the porcpines burrow/set. You just wonder if mama porcupine let i bambini porcupine play with them just a few at a time. We went outside the fence and down the hill to the burrow and collected a carrier bag of toys which had been lost over a couple of months.

We had a loud finale to the cinghale season here yesterday - rifle shots everywhere. But then, cinghale is delicious - for those who have not had it - it's a bit like gamey pork. Much healthier than pork because there is less cholesterol. Sorry, going off thread! but this is a post after a glass of wine!:winki: and we are celebrating finishing our first week back at Italian school :yes: