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Animal Antics


Cattawall

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Over the past months when I have been out caching I have seen various creatures from Bats to Owls along side Moo Cows & Dangerous Dogs..

I even had the unlucky find of a dead fox next to a cache that had been hidden under a tree..

 

Last night however was a "first" discovery for me when my caching partner decided to hand me a cache box, and when I opened it a frog jumped out at me! This was my first live find.. All it needed was a TB dog tag!

 

Have you got any creature tales good or bad to share? Or do you have a geocaching dog that causes mischeif?

Edited by Cattawall
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On Saturday we were on the way to a cache on a cave in north jersey, and rode by a 3 legged deer in someone's yard. It looked like a lawn ornament at first, as it was only a few feet from the road and completely motionless. It's front leg was just a short stump, and I stopped to get a picture, but it was nearly dusk so the lighting wasn't too good. I felt bad for it, but it was hobbling along ok, just a little slow. There were several other deer that seemed to be watching out for it.

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Frogs, slugs (in and on caches), horses (some not very friendly),squirrels, Foxes (dead and alive), red deer, weasels, cats (dead and alive), cows, sheep, goats (wild and domestic), adders, hedgehogs, ducks, kestrels and swans

 

Think that's it, other than my dog who is normally with us.

Edited by Pedagog
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Like you, I found a family of frogs in a cache.

Unlike you, I had taken the cache back to my car, so I could sign

the log and add my swag items out of the rain. When I opened the cache

the frogs jumped out and for all I know they are still living somewhere

under that back seat.

 

I was lucky that I never encountered a snake, but yesterday on the way to searching

a rock wall, I heard a hissing sound like a lawn sprinkler coming on, then I

noticed the rattle sound augmenting the hiss. Saw a slithering, striped beauty

sliding away, but if I hadn't been careful it cudda ended badly.

Edited by FolsomNatural
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Just got back from not finding a cache due partly to not being able to breathe; someone left a plastic bag containing some kind of animal very near it, and I'm afraid it wasn't pining for the fjords. :-{ Guess it's time to contact the parks department.

 

Not quite caching, but a few hundred feet from where I found a cache: A few days after Hurricane Irene, a week or two before deciding I'd been getting Groundspeak emails long enough without actually doing anything about them, I was out clearing storm debris off paths in a different segment of James River Park. Picked up one fairly hefty tree limb and heaved it into the underbrush, and was surprised to hear it strike what sounded like a plastic trash barrel.

 

Before I had time to wonder who would leave a trash can deep in a wooded park, a five- or six-point buck leapt up from where he had been resting and dashed off into the forest. =@.@= The thudding sound was from the branch whacking his rib cage and lungs. Didn't seem to have hurt him but I'm sure he had no kind thoughts for my trail-clearing effort. My "Sorryyyy!" didn't mollify him; he stomped away in a huff. "Huff, huff," quoth he.

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A snake passed our daughter's path while caching on Saturday just before we saw at least 20 gators. There were so many butterflies out it was astonishing. I thought it was late in the year for them but they sure were in abundance.

 

Today, I was out checking out possible cache locations and was astonished by a very large sandhill crane standing in a person's yard. They have so many yard ornaments that at first my brain just processed it as another plastic creature. When I realized what it was we both just stopped and looked at each other. They are very tall birds with a long wing span.

 

Three of the caches we have gone to included animal skeletons in the experience. One was the cache container itself. :blink: One was like another poster mentioned, it was a decaying deer in a plastic bag right at the cache site (thank goodness the cache owner warned us) but even many months after the initial logs stating that there was a dead dear there, it still reeked to high heaven and no one had done anything about it. The last was a little skeleton head a few feet from the cache. I guess for the most part that is nature for you?

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My most memorable animal encounter occurred a couple years ago while hiking in a nearby conservation area. We were walking down the trail when I spotted a snake (Garter). Then I saw another and another...I looked to the side of the trail and saw that the snakes were literally pouring out of a rock crevice. They were just emerging from hibernation. I stopped counting when I got to 50, but they were still pouring out as fast as ever.

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Not so much an animal antic, as a surprise.

 

I once pulled a cache out of its hidey-hole, and found that someone had left a piece of rope or a shoestring tied to it. Because of the awkward position I was in, I simply grabbed the cache and tried to get myself situated so I wouldn't fall down the hill. I didn't pay any attention to the container, until that shoestring started to curl itself around my arm. The shoestring turned out to be a Prairie King snake. It was a bit of a surprise to suddenly find a snake in my hand.

 

I managed to get a few pics of it before I turned it loose. When I put the cache back into its hole, there was another snake in there. I didn't manage to get a pic of that one.

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My brother-in-law was caching by himself one day, and claims to have been swooped at by a mama hawk. I bet it was a sparrow though!

 

I was geocaching in northern Vermont this summer, and came across a feral mountain cow halfway up a climb. One thing you learn in New England is to never challenge a mountain cow, but just turn around and walk away quietly.

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My, now fiance and I stopped for a cache on a road trip to see some friends during the summer, in a small park in Canajoharie, NY, about 2 and a half hours away from our home in Syracuse. While he was looking for the geocache, a little kitten, came out of the bushes nearby and got our attention, allowing us to pet her. She was a sweet cat, but didn't have a collar.

 

A local sat on a park bench, not too far from us, and let us know the kitty's story: a little boy had brought the kitty to the park on a collar and leash, took the collar and leash off, and left. We felt sorry for her, but we were running short on time to get to our friends, so we left. We figured that SOMEONE would return for this kitty.

 

We came back the next evening, after visiting friends, to the same park, and found her again. It was getting dark, and we thought we'd do the right thing, and bring her home with us. She did NOT want to go with us. She was not pleased with the way we were picking her up, so we let her go, and figured that someone would return for this kitty.

 

I thought about the kitty all day at work on Monday, called at least a half dozen shelters to see if they would take a cat, and the lady at the last place to reject me said "Why don't you take care if it?" The weather matched my mood: it was raining all day.

 

I went over to my fiance's house to talk about it. He already had a cat, but I debated adopting this one, until finally, I said "Let's go save the kitty." Monday evening, we drove out to Canajoharie to get the kitty. We returned to the park, and she was nowhere to be found. We must have looked for about 45 minutes, asking around at the local bar, and then we gave up.

 

I drove away from the park, but missed my turn to get back on the highway. No worries, I spotted a parking lot, turned in so I could turn around...and there she was!! She was hiding inside of a window casing out of the rain! I stopped the car, my fiance and I got out of the car. I scruffed her this time, so she was pretty docile, and we took her home. She is very happy living at my house. She is my furry geo-schwag.

 

We were fortunate enough to bring the cat carrier, because about an hour into the drive, she threw-up in the carrier, and (thankfully) not on the upholstery of the car. That may have been the first time that I've seen a cat embarrassed.

Edited by SillyMe_3
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My animal antics story was during the summer while looking for the 2nd part of a 3 stage multi. I was walking through a field of tall grass with my buddy. I was looking at my GPSr when the ground right next to me exploded with a screech like I have never heard before. I jumped a good foot or 2 straight up, and my buddy, a big burly type, squealed like a little girl (no offence to the little girls in the audience). When I landed I saw a baby fawn bounding off through the grass. I looked down to where it was laying and I could clearly see the imprint in the grass, and my foot was touching it. I think I may have actually stepped on it causing it to scream in fear and flee.

 

After getting my heart rate back down to a somewhat normal level, we continued our hunt, keeping a CLOSE eye on the grass before us...

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Was cacahing in woods at Windsor Great Park (the Queen's backyard) on our way to the Isle of Wight this Summer and came across a magnificent stag which appeared to be very tolerant of us humans. Fantastic sight in a lovely location. Locally to where we live, have come across Chinese Water Deer, Foxes, Kingfishers and, of course, myriads of squirrels.

Edited by Smoglon
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