Mean Squirrel
4205raymond
Member Posts: 3,316 ✭✭✭✭
Waltermoe's story about GooGoo got me to thinking about Granny's pet squirrel Mickey Finn. Hope I am not repeating this story.
Granny and Grandpa lived in Central Virginia in Louisa County. In the early days I lived with them and later on I stayed with them in the summer when school was out. Grandpa was a saw miller, WW1 vet and never had a car. If he needed to go any place or the general store he jumped in the wagon and Maggie hauled him away. Walked a mile each morning with his black lunch box and company truck picked him up and off to the saw mill he went.
Well, one day after Granny and Grandpa returned from Country General Store I was eating my usual grapes that they always brought me, sometimes peanuts. Mickey Finn would try and steal them from me. He was a real bully and sometimes he would draw blood and even make me cry. About an hour later Grandpa went to the corn crib to feed his chickens and there sat Mickey Finn eating his corn. Grandpa came to the house and got his little 20ga sxs Stevens and that was the end of Mickey Finn.
A little later Granny said to Grandpa, "Martin, I thought I heard a gunshot". He replied "Catherine that old Red Fox was after my chickens again." Of course the next day MicKey Finn was missing and Grandpa said he probably found a girlfriend in the woods and did not want to come home.
Years later Grandpa and i were sitting together alone and he said Junior I have to tell you something and you can never tell your Grandma. My conscience has been bothering me all these years and I have to tell someone what happened to Mickey Finn. Then he told me what happened to Mickey Finn.
Grandpa was a kind, gentle man. brought up seven kids who always had enough food and clothes to wear and worked hard all his life. He told me he just got tired of seeing that darn squirrel bully me and take my grapes and peanuts. When he caught that squirrel in his corn crib it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Sometimes i guess you can push a man too far.
Granny is in Heaven now and I never told her what happened. I hope she understands ----------------Ray
Comments
Ray, do you remember those chick's they would sell at the feed store around Easter? They were dyed pastel colors but grew up to be white roosters.
I has one at my grandparents. It would jump me when I went to the outhouse.
One day he was up the hill with the other chickens, so I made a dash to the privy. When I came out, he must have been waiting for me. He flogged me all the way to the house. Grandma came out with a broom and chased him off.
Days later, I told Grandma I hadn't see the rooster. She said "Do you remember the fried chicken we had last Sunday?"
Good stories
I had an Uncle that was a farmer in Alabama, we were visiting one summer and when I went out to the barnyard to look at the animals, my Uncle''s rooster attacked me and ran me all the way back into the house. The SOB spurred me pretty good a couple of times.
My Uncle (Jennings) said that was the last straw as the bird had started attacking others as well ........................... Chicken and dumplings for dinner .............. Oh Yeah! Revenge taste pretty darned good.
My aunt had the biggest meanest rooster you've ever seen. And it would attack you, and draw blood. The damned thing was a menace to everyone.
One day, coming back from squirrel hunting, it attacked me, and sliced my leg open.
Fun Fact: If you shoot a rooster from 2' away with a 20 ga, nothing is left but feathers in the air. 🙄
Merc
Ok we are on to roosters😀 Dad had a big Rhode Island Red with one leg down in Fluvanna County, Virginia. He was mom/dad's pet and they called him "Booster the Roster" When dad cut the three acres with his Yazoo mower, Booster would hop along behind Dad and catch every grasshopper he could see on one leg. Took dad two days to cut all that grass. Booster serviced all the hens even with one leg and fought off all the competition. He was the Boss. Was a picnic table under low hanging limb on huge oak in back yard. Dad would pick Booster up and sit him on table. During grass cutting days Booster was so full of grasshoppers that he could not jump up to limb from table so dad gave him a boost when it got dark.
Booster slept on that Oak tree limb all summer and when it got real cold he slept on the roost pole in the insulated hen house with his lady friends. One very cold morning Mom opened the hen house door and there laid Booster under the roost pole stiff as a board. We never knew if he died of overexertion, old age or got too cold. He died amongst his Lady Friends, What more could you ask for?
Mom/Dad cried for a week. ---------------------------------------Ray
PS: Somewhere i have a picture of Booster hopping behind Dad catching grasshoppers on one leg. I will try to find it.
@4205raymond . Talk about bring back memories. My dad had a pet crow, it feel out of the nest and dad raised it, dad named him Bluto. It was like dad and Bluto were best friends, if dad would drive across town that crow would follow the car wait for him and then follow the car back home. Dad had a pen in the garage where he stayed, and he was the only person that really could get near Bluto. One day mom was getting in the car and shut the door on Blutos foot, dad took him to a vet and the vet removed his foot. Dad ended up taking a dowel rod, drilling it out, put a rubber cap over the end of the dowel rod and attached the dowel rod to his leg with super glue. He seemed to get around alright with is wooden leg. But one day in spring the next year all of a sudden Bluto just disappeared. It was about 2 or 3 months later Bluto showed up out side the house with two other crows, turned out Bluto was a she and not a he. After that she would hang around in the trees out doors and not come into the garage. Can’t really remember what ever came of her as I had moved out of the house at that time.
Thank you for jogging my memory with that story of your dads rooster.
Could not find picture of Booster following Dad and his Yazoo. Can you imagine cutting three acres with that thing back in the late 80's. Booster is probably in background guarding his Lady Friends. I was wrong and the leg was not missing but usually tucked up under his body. The left leg was utterly useless and he had to hop everywhere with right leg. Second picture is Booster (the boss) Kent's Store, Fluvanna County, Virginia, Probably late 80's -------------------------Ray
Deer hunted on a farm in central Ill. for years. He had a rooster that was his pet for years and acturally had a personality!! Funny stuff.