Tough day in the life of a Pacific fisher
Journal Entry, August 2023
Siskiyou Crest Mountain Range
-Ms. Carnivora Pennanti Fisher-
A Long Night
Good Lord, I am so tired. The kits (Bruce, Eddy and Sheela) were an absolute paw-full last night. Bruce was making a racket like he just can’t wait to get munched into barred owl scat. Eddy was up all night chasing shrews. And don’t get me started on Sheela; that kit is only 5 months old and is raring to be out on her own. Don’t suppose I can blame her, I was a wild one at that age as well. I absolutely should never have hooked up with her father, but I tell ya, it’s hard to find a quality mate in these mountains. So here I am, in a log with three kits that don’t know their tails from their snouts. I wonder if there are any tasty porcupines in this valley.
Poison in The Pot Patch
This is just too good to be true! Some sort of weird stinky plants and irrigation all over the forest and looky here—a fat woodrat that’s down on his luck, stumbling around kinda funny like and out in the open. This is going to be yummy…
…I don’t feel so good. My guts hurt, and I’m really dizzy. Where am I? How am I going to get back to kits at my den log? Something was very wrong with that wood rat…
It’s too Damn Hot
Well, I made it back to the log somehow despite the belly ache and brain fog, don’t ask me how, and Sheela is just gone! And gosh it’s hot, hot, hot. Too damn hot. Sometimes I wish I could take this fur coat off. The last time it was this hot, the Slater Fire got going with that east wind and blasted through that sweet den I had out by Poker Flat. Then those guys came with the chainsaws and took out pretty much every nice snag that I had my eye on for an apartment den. Sometimes I wish I were in the Sierra Mountains. Might have to take Bruce and Eddy on a Sierra migration while they’re still young’uns.
Trapped
We found Sheela. She hadn’t run off to find a mate like I thought. Maybe that was projection on my part. No, get this, she’s caught in some sort of gizmo they call a “trap.” I’ve heard of these things but always thought they were a rumor, like Bigfoot, to scare kits and get them to behave. But no, traps are real, actual things. And Sheela is caught in one and we gotta get her out! She keeps meowing that she’s thirsty. Hang on girl, we’re getting you outta there! Good thing my paws are agile and strong.
On the Move
Ok, that took some doing but we got Sheela out of the stupid trap and we’re on the move! But where should we go? There’s poisons, logging, heat domes, traps and I, I,…I don’t know where to go. Let’s try the Ashland Watershed and see how we fair there. I hope there’s still some tasty porcupines to eat and some creeks to drink from…Now to find an oak with a nice hole that the four of us can squeeze into for the night. Gotta show these kits how it’s done. Live wild. Live free. But right now I’m just so tired.