“Serving overseas as a small-town boy in America has been intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!”
—Matt
A Trap of Many Sizes
There seems to be a perpetual tension between man and critters. My dad has a perpetual war with chipmunks. Despite our best efforts to remind him how cute they are, his chewed-up plants and the trafficway through his landscaping beds say otherwise. His chipmunks are live trapped and taken on a one-way trip to a nearby woods.
My dad inherited his dad’s love of trapping and war with animal pests. I remember many ankle breaking size holes scattered through my grandpa’s pole barn and property. My grandpa used kill traps to go after groundhogs. I remember him carefully pulling back the strong spring and very, very carefully setting it into the hole. He was thrilled when checking the traps to pull out a lifeless furry 5-10lb critter out of the hole.
When studying wildlife at Purdue, we live trapped all sorts of animals. We had to check traps very frequently as large animals would try to eat the critter caught inside. Other times the critter inside would go berserk and hurt itself if left too long.
Smaller animal trapping in Indiana did not prepare me for the recent traps I ran into overseas. A German friend showed me the largest live trap I had ever seen. I was clueless as to what it was for. He warned me not to go inside, as people can’t escape one on their own either once inside. Hunters in our area use packs of dogs. Instead of putting older hunting dogs “to pasture,” hunters just release them to the wild to scavenge for themselves. The abandoned dogs often starve to death or form packs and become dangerous to people. My German friend and others trap the dogs in the forests for their wellbeing and people’s safety.
I have learned that there is trap of every size and thankful that small-town America normallay only needs the smaller sizes.
Something similar ever happen to you. Contact me and let me hear your story!
mattsmishaps@gmail.com Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
