# Neat encounter today



## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I was in the front yard potting up plants when I heard a rustling in the leaves near my feet. I saw the little grey body with the short tail and long nose. My first live sighting of a short-tailed shrew. Neat little critters, one of the very few venomous mammals. I've found dead ones several times and have a skull from one so I knew we had them but never before did I catch sight of a live one. This one was very wide right across the back-end. Not only was it alive it was perhaps a very pregnant female! She shuffled through the leaves and ambled across a paver block looking around a flower pot. I hope she found some tasty treats before she went back to her home.


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## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

Saw one while deer hunting last year. Little bugger was running around my boot. I love sitting still. Real still. I do a great impersonation of a moss covered rock. Eventually everything in the woods will walk right past you.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

One winter shrews were thick around here. I caught 5-6 in the house and all winter the neighbors cat was killing them and leaving them on my snow trail to the goats.

I never saw a single mouse that winter.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Today one of the baby bunnies came right up to my feet and nibbled on grass right behind me. They're about 5 or 6 weeks old. Probably born right under the deck. They are why I grow stuff in pots and behind fencing.


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## charliesbugs (Feb 25, 2007)

I think why your cat did not eat them because they have a smell or odor that they give off. I think owls will eat them as owls do not smell. I would not bet the farm on that so if anyone knows more about that let me know. If you see shrews around they will keep the mice thinned out. I remember reading an article once that the writer said if shrews got the size of groundhogs there would no other animals on the earth. They will kill anything they can if it doesn't kill them first.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I see them lying on the trails in the woods too. I think the shrew triggers an attack by it's movement and the fox or bobcat kills them before they realize they don't like the taste. That's probably why the stray cat killed so many.


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## My2butterflies (Jan 17, 2015)

Ugh, I dislike shrews. We had them really bad last year. Every time I mowed I'd see half a dozen or so running across the yard. 
When I was a teen I had a bedroom in the basement. Frogs fell into my window well despite it being covered. I tried to get them out as soon as I found them but more always ended up in there. One night I heard an awful noise! Somewhat like a horrible scream. I took a flashlight and looked into the window well and a shrew was trying to pull a leopard frog into a hole The poor frog was screaming in pain and I can only imagine terror. I was horrified! I've hated shrews with a passion since then.


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