The black as night mink turned into an gorgeous white as snow ermine
 ..... that little bugger was in my dreams last nite, too ...........
not only in my minivan but in my dreams!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After 5 hours of sleep, I woke up Friday morning and immediately went
out to check on Mr. Mink. More little poopies. There were 2 french
fries in the van that I had left for him to eat. He hadn't touched
them. April, I don't think he likes Totally Ferret because the dish
hadn't been touched either. I don't know about the water. I don't
know how I had all that poop when he wasn't eating anything. End of
obsessive thought.

I needed a live trap. I called my good friend, June, who is a vet tech
at a local cat clinic. She had been involved once live-trapping feral
cats and had borrowed some of my large carriers. She informed me Animal
Control takes a $75 deposit for live traps. Good grief. I borrowed her
car and went over to Markels (wildlife rehabbers). Luckily, I found
Peg in the kitchen and she had a live trap. She called her DNR contact
again and he was in. He said mink are prolific in Kent County, they
keep the muskrat population down and are voracious hunters. I told Peg
I didn't I'd be able to find muskrat at Family Fare or Meijer (despite
the fact Meijer has everything) and I WAS NOT going to have a trap with
smelt in my minivan on a hot August day, windows cracked open or not.

I returned June's car and proceeded to set the live trap. I found
a large can of tuna and put a tablespoon of juice and tuna in a
bowl-shaped piece of foil. Food in the trap, trap in the van .....
done. He'd be trapped within the hour, then I'd release him somewhere
wet and I'd have canned tuna for dinner.

Unbelievable ..... one hour later & the trap is still empty. How can
he not be hungry for fish? It's good tuna!!!!! I'm baffled ..... and
frustrated. I have been wasting a perfectly good day off where I could
be spending quality time with my rescues on this lousy little mink!!!!
This would not be a good time for a blood pressure check.

After the mail came, I decided to take Mr. Mink for a ride to Riverside
Park. Riverside Park is a beautiful looooooong park along the Grand
River and it's only a couple miles from my house. I've passed it a
zillion times but never gone in. First time for everything, right?
After a bit of a search, I found a nice little spot as close to the
river as possible. I parked the car with the passenger side toward the
river, opened the 2 doors on the passenger side, got out my chair and
positioned it far from the vehicle but within a good line of sight and
sat down with a PEOPLE magine (the edition with the Jolie-Pitt twins).
My thought was, well if you can't figure it out, you need to start
listening to NPR. By the way, mink like Talk of the Nation.

I read the ENTIRE magazine so I must have been there 2 hours. NO escape
of the mink. Ridiculous!! What is wrong with this animal??? I couldn't
have made it any easier?!?!??! By now, I'm totally frustrated. I want
this guy out ..... NOW. He hasn't eaten and had anything to drink .....
is he going to die in the dashboard of my minivan? Now I'm obsessing
about having to explain to my insurance company how I need to file a
claim to have my dashboard torn apart to find a dead mink.

I packed myself up, drove home, parked in the shade and cracked the
windows open. My good friend, Rose, called and came over. My day off
is our day to make our pilgrimage to Dairy Queen (1 large Turtle Pecan
Cluster Blizzard and 1 large Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard,
please). (Note: when I brought home 21 DMK ferrets last September,
I named one little guy, DQ). She wanted to see the mink and take a
picture. Knock yourself out, I told her. She found him and tried taking
pics with her camera phone and then with my camera. I have no idea how
long that lasted, but after she was exasperated, we went to Dairy Queen
and she drove.

All I could do was wait for Mr. Mink to go into the live trip. I would
let ferrets out to play, clean litterboxes and go out and check on the
live trap.

At 10PM, it happened. I went out and there he was, just where he was
suppose to be this morning. After 36 hours of waiting, the ordeal was
over. There was Mr. Mink finally in the live trap and not happy about
it at all. I had this wonderful adrenaline rush. I called June. I
called Rose. I ran over to my neighbor who had also gotten in on the
action. I carefully lifted the live trap out of the van hoping the trap
would really and truly do its job. Mr. Mink was not happy. He started
screeching. You know the bird screeching sound you hear in the movies
that's suppose to be an eagle or a hawk or something? Well, I think
it's a mink now after listening to this guy.

June came over and took pictures. Rose came over. I proceeded to tell
them they were coming with me to release Mr. Mink and although I KNOW
they were not planning on it, but good friends that they are, they
agreed to come with me. I love them. Besides, I was not going into
Riverside Park after 10pm. I had read enough stories in the paper about
nighttime activity and even a murder years ago. I was not going to be a
statistic or a news story. What was this woman doing in Riverside Park
after dark, parked by the river, with an empty live trip near her body?
Nope, not going alone.

But we had to go to the jail first. I had promised my new friends from
last nitet I would take pictures and bring them by, but this was even
better than pictures. We stopped by June's house to get heavy gloves
(June is always prepared for everything. She already had a monster
flashlight with her) and then on to the jail. It was near shift change
so it was close to 11pm when we got there. I followed an officer in,
stopped him & told him I needed to find the people from last nite and
told him the story. He went in and found a couple of the cops from the
night before. I bought out the live trap and set it on the picnic table
and, of course, we attracted a few more officers that were coming in
off their shifts. One of the cops put his finger close to the cage and
Mr. Mink screeched for everyone and then started hissing. You should
have seen everyone back off. I told them we were heading for Riverside
Park and not one of them was concerned for our safety by offering to
release the mink for me, giving us a police escort or anything. They
just went on their way ......good luck ....... bye.

Next stop, Riverside Park. I was hoping to go to the spot I had been
earlier in the day but there was a gate blocking the entrance. We ended
up at the first entrance by the boat launch. There was a truck with a
boat trailer, no driver. Where was the owner? Where was the boat?
Something sinister going on? Oh well, we were on a mission, I'll read
about it in the paper tomorrow.

I pulled up as close to the river as I could away from the boat launch,
left the headlights on so we could witness the event. We got out out, I
got Mr. Mink out, set the trap down with the release end toward the
river, put a pair of heavy gloves on, waited for June and Rose to find
a good vantage point (behind me, of course) and then opened the
release. Nothing. What's he doing? June said he was just sitting there,
wait, he's sniffing, there's his head poking out ............ and then,
in a heartbeat, out he flew straight for the cattails to the river.

DONE!!!!!!!

After a brief ... very brief ... celebration, we got back in MY
minivan. I had my car back. 3 friends on their way home from a midnite
adventure releasing a wild mink back to its habitat. I need a drink. I
haven't had Kahlua or Baileys in a long time but that's going to end
tonite. June discovered poop on her purse (nice souvenir) and I'm
thinking my Saturday project is to clean the carpeting in my minivan.

Afterthought: if anyone has ever had experience with a live trap, it's
a pretty neat little thing. I was impressed by it's simplicity and
effectiveness. Kudos to whoever invented it.

Yea!!

Dee Gage
West Michigan

[Posted in FML 6058]