Fox Pee

I literally yelped shortly after waking up this morning. It was not a good start to the day, and was clearly an omen for how today was going to go. I woke up, went to check my garden and came upon chaos. Hence the yelp. 1 tomato pot on its side, 1 tomato victim, 2 peppers down for the count, netting around 4 of the pots was pulled partially down, and the stakes were pulled up. There is a critter in our midst and it is not friendly. Suggestions of what our unwelcome guest could be are chipmunks, squirrels, or a raccoon. Yikes. Does Queens have raccoons??

I've been having troubles lately with something eating my peppers as you will recall, of course, from having been thoroughly engrossed by my Sneak Attack post. For several days, leaves have been torn down and baby peppers' cute little lives have been cut short. The destruction I found this morning took it to the next level. 

With life there is always death. I am in the anger stage of mourning.
The pepper on the top isn't touched, just cut down!

I am not a morning person and as usual left myself very little time to get ready before work. So finding soil spilled across the deck, lots of clean up to be done, and fewer vegetable products for me and Chris, set the tone for my entire day. At the end of a pretty stressful work day, I decided to stay late. I think because I didn't want to come home and find more downed peppers - I was that depressed by the situation. As if not being here would fix the problem. I have had enough. This is war, folks, and I'm pissed!!

And speaking of being pissed (I totally planned that), when my mother heard about my veggie trials a few days ago, she suggested that I look into a product called Shake Away to help keep the critters away. It was late when we spoke and I was tired so I just said okay and made a mental note, not really asking any questions. The next day, my boss said to me 'This may sound weird but fox urine often helps with small animals. It makes them think that a predator has been there and they get scared away.'  Uh-huh. Okay. Where in the world am I going to find fox urine? It's not like I have a friendly pet fox with good aim. And eeewwww!  Shake Away certainly sounded a lot more appealing so I go home and look it up.  Fox pee! That's what Shake Away is. And you can order fox pee on Amazon. Who knew? It's amazing the things you can buy online and have shipped to your home.

In case you were wondering, and I know you were, fox pee comes in little granules so you can sprinkle it where you need to. And it smells. Not like flowers. I know that's surprising. I don't want to go near that smell either. But I have a problem that needs fixing. So I sprinkled here, sprinkled there. We'll see if it successfully keeps the little rascals from eating my hard-earned, beautiful produce.  If this doesn't work, then my friend Josh, the master gardener (which is so cool to say) suggested a pepper-spray home remedy. And if THAT doesn't work....

Say a prayer, do a dance, keep your fingers crossed. Otherwise, you may want to steer clear of me for awhile. I won't be a happy camper.