Comments on: Any Guesses?

By: twoblueday

twoblueday — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:59:47 +0000

I am certain that what you have pictured here is an alien life form. Somewhere, in the depths of space and time, or spacetime, this fellow has a planet of origin, but he was born with a gypsy bone.

By: mrschili

mrschili — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:51:47 +0000

Dudley, HAHAHAHAHA! There were FOUR of them – three babies and a mama. It would have been carnage (besides, you know better than to think we’ve got GUNS in the Chili household. Though… my neighbor is a cop…. hmmmmm…

By: Dudley

Dudley — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:59:18 +0000

It’s a weasel. Shoot it now.

By: mrschili

mrschili — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:17:28 +0000

If it keeps the fisher cats from eating the CAT cats, I’m all for it!

Keep an eye out; the next “backyard wildlife” picture is a bird who is trying her hardest to let herself in our bedroom window. I’ll post about her as soon as I get a really good picture….

By: Pookie

Pookie — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:14:19 +0000

Oh, and the “annual visitor” on your Flickr page is a woodchuck. Maybe he can chuck wood at the fisher cats.

By: Kizz

Kizz — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:45:35 +0000

All of a sudden I’m really glad we’re meeting for lunch on Fri away from your house.

By: Grammar Snob

Grammar Snob — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:30:28 +0000

Cute? Maybe in a zoo where they are, you know, behind glass. In your BACK FREAKING YARD? Oh, hell no.

Good luck and keep a sharp eye. Also maybe a trip to the doc for some antivenom or something should they attack.

I’m not helping, am I?

By: mrschili

mrschili — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:44:40 +0000

You are all making compelling arguments for the fisher cat theory – and Sooza’s article makes me think you’re all correct; the photos in that article look much more like what our critters looked like than any we could find in Google Images under “fisher cat.”
The hope is that this little family were just passing through. We have four CAT cats, and we’d very much like them to NOT become someone else’s dinner.

By: Pookie

Pookie — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:10:42 +0000

Mr. Chili should know that fisher cats are “long tailed weasels”. Both weasels and fishers (martens) are mustelids, as are ferrets, minks, and ermin. Only fishers have such long thick tails.

Fishers have retractable claws, and can rotate their rear paws 180 degrees, to hang on while climbing down a tree. This is handy when they attack porcupines face-first; porcupines’ defense mechanism is to climb up a tree, and they’re not very agile. That’s why the fisher cat is the porcupine’s only natural predator.

Anyhoo… the fact that they were climbing a tree pretty well nails it. Fishers nest in trees, but the other mustelids stick to the ground.

By: Sooza

Sooza — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 02:07:32 +0000

You probably don’t want to wait until winter to see if it turns completely white, except for the black tip of the tail (which would indicate weasel).

Could you see if the underbelly was lighter?