This just totally destroyed all the things we wanted to do today. About lunchtime we heard our dog barking and the geese were herding the ducks around so we stepped out to see what was going on. We saw a stray had gotten into the fenced yard. As we tried to check it for id tags it actually ran into the house. Once we got it outside it ran back to the other side of the house. That was when we found both rabbit cages trashed and the rabbits stretched out beside them where it had shaken them to death. I finally managed to corner the dog under an oak tree (which I later found had one of our turkeys hiding in it). Since I figured it was best to get it out of the yard before it got on of the turkeys or waterfowl that free range I picked him up and threw him over our 4' picket fence. About that time I see my wife charging around the side of the house with a 5lb shop hammer ready to smash its brains out. She was a bit annoyed that I'd let him go to say the least.
Now before anyone freaks out and warns us that it is illegal to kill someone else's pet, I should point out that if I catch it even chasing my livestock on my land in TN the law allows me to kill it now or at any point later when I can corner it. And since it killed a pair of pure breed mini Rexs we were going to breed next year and also chased our turkeys, peahen, and waterfowl it definitely met those criteria.
I managed to catch him in the yard of one of the few relatives that live nearby that are still speaking to me. They gave me some rope and I walked him back to the house. We walked all the way down our road to see if anyone claimed him. At the end of the road is the local animal shelter so we also planned on letting them dispose of him. Unfortunately they were closed and their drop box was also locked. So we walked back to the house and called the Sheriff's department. They sent out a deputy, but he couldn't find anyone to deal with the animal either. So now unless we want to fire up the tractor and dig it a grave we have to hear it howl all night long until we can drop it off at the shelter in the morning.
No one has claimed it so we just have to write off our losses. It cost us 2 $100 rabbit cages and several hours of our day, but the worst cost was seeing our 11 year old son cry because it had killed his rabbit. All the last week he has been bringing it in after school and playing with it for an hour or two before taking it back out. He was even trying to talk us into letting him house train Drake so he could stay inside. Then he started crying again while we tried to get one of our pet turkeys off the power lines because he thought we were going to loose it too. He is still pretty upset and that hurts us more than any of the rest.
