Yesterday afternoon in 95 degree temperature my lovely wife and I returned home after grocery shopping. We raised the garage door and left the car outside to cool down. On my second trip out to get another load of groceries I found a very limp mink crawling across the floor. It was not aggressive and got very close to our cat and to me. It discovered the cat's water and premium dry feed and actively ate and drank. After resting a bit it was running around exploring the garage, the cat and me. After a while it just left and I haven't seen it since. I guess maybe it was just very hot, thirsty and hungry and after getting refueled went on it's way.

I like it when I'm able to help a lost or distressed animal. We had a hummingbird trapped in our garage for the better part of day before I was able to make a homemade net to get him out. He was pretty close to gone when I got to him.

Poor little guy just needed some help. Good job.

there are a lot of mink farms around here. I have no experience, but I've heard stories that the ones that escape are not usually friendly.

I'm glad you could help the little guy out, though - and that he was friendly! I've not actually ever seen a mink in person, so that'd be pretty cool .

for some reason I've been finding a lot of juvenile bats around my property in the mornings

obviously out at night but then are either clinging to the wall or just sitting on the concrete patio

I pick them up and put them up in trees off the hot surfaces

Mink or Ferret?

According to pictures on the web, it definitely is a mink. The body is about 12-14 inches long, dark chocolate brown, very slender.

Are bats rabies carriers?

quote:

Originally posted by 4x5:
I like it when I'm able to help a lost or distressed animal. We had a hummingbird trapped in our garage for the better part of day before I was able to make a homemade net to get him out. He was pretty close to gone when I got to him.

I've done the hummingbird thing a bunch of times. They want to hug the ceiling and are reluctant to drop down and fly out the 7x16 foot open door. It always seems to be 95 degrees when this happens and I end up needing a shower immediately afterward.

All around the cat food dish, the mink was hot a thirsty.

Had it's fill with nary a spill, POP! goes the weasel.


What, you expected a rhyme? From a monkey???

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
for some reason I've been finding a lot of juvenile bats around my property in the mornings

obviously out at night but then are either clinging to the wall or just sitting on the concrete patio

I pick them up and put them up in trees off the hot surfaces

So cool that you're helping, to all, but esp the bats. I believe bats are in trouble, and they can use all the help they can get. Do be careful, though, as someone mentioned, they definitely carry rabies.

you wore out your mink? damn dude!

So is there a stream close by?

When trapping, I have had mink eat the dead muskrat so it is possible they would go after your cat.

Apparently muskrat is a favorite food of mink. There is a large pond probably two hundred yards from our house. We've been here more than 45 years and I've never seen a mink here before. The cat is about 8 pounds. I can't imagine the mink was more than about 2 1/2 pounds.

Added comment after Google search- Apparently mink can be vicious and may attack cats and small dogs as well as chickens and rabbits. This particular one was certainly non-aggressive.

So minks had the first muskrat love?

quote:

Originally posted by 4x5:
I like it when I'm able to help a lost or distressed animal. We had a hummingbird trapped in our garage for the better part of day before I was able to make a homemade net to get him out. He was pretty close to gone when I got to him.

Same here. I'm a big softy.

Mink or ferret I'm not sure, but I saw one in my barn some years back and left it alone.

Over the next week or so, it killed all my girlfriend's chickens and a couple turkeys, despite my trying to hunt it after the first night we lost some. I reinforced the chicken wire fencing I had put around their enclosure, and even stayed up a couple nights with a shotgun and a flashlight, but still lost them all.

Kill it now!

Healthy live minks (as all weasels) can be ferocious little critters. Would catch them by accident in my rabbit boxes when I was a kid.

Had to air out the box and scrub it before a rabbit would go in it again. They can kill a full grown bunny that is much bigger.

My bird dog of twenty years ago found one when hunting quail and the mink bit it on the nose drawing blood. My dog just backed up and watched it run away. He was not a bird and my dog was not a fighter.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Are bats rabies carriers?

Yes, and also carry a whole lot of other diseases/

Minks might have more fight pound for pound than about anything. I found a goose sitting on a nest on my boat cover and she appeared quite serious about staying there. I look a few days later and she's gone and a few eggs are broken. Pull my cover and it is a house of horrors in my boat. Feathers, blood, corn and other stomach materials. I assume a mink got ahold of the goose and ate part of her without disturbing the cover. Don't know how they both got in there. Took hours to clean up.