My trapping partner caught a marten the day before I got home. So guess who got to skin him! That's right, this lucky panda. I did pretty good. I'm a little out of practice though. I nicked his belly. about a 1/4 of an inch or so. :( Bummer, but you can't tell when you turn him or anything so it won't detract from his value. He wasn't bloody at all and skinned really easily and nicely.
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| They're so scrawny under all that fur. I think their front paws look funny still attached. |
Sunday morning Aune accompanied me and Gregg on the trap line. On our way to Gregg's cabin we checked the sets. In the first bunch there was a little fox. He was caught in a snare but wasn't dead yet. To put him out of his misery I had to strangle and crush him. Oh man, that's the tough part of trapping. I hadn't actually done that part of it yet but I certainly wasn't going to leave the little fox suffering. So I stepped up to the plate.
I skinned the fox that night. His tail was a little frozen. We learned our lesson there. To make sure the tail is fully thawed before we skin it. He had a old big wound on his side. Even the muscular structure on that side of him was a lot smaller than his healthy side. All of us wondered and pondered what had happened to this fox and if he would have survived the winter. When Gregg was scrapping him, he opened up the healed wound. It was really disgusting. Aune took pictures. I didn't. It still kind of turns my stomach. Gregg poked it with his finger. Ew.
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