Sep 10th, 2015

Author: donich_admin

Fright in the Night

I was just going to sleep about 11pm yesterday when all of a sudden I heard a faint noise that sounded a bit like a cat fight. For a moment I thought it was my imagination, and then I noticed that Tora, who was sleeping on my pillow had pricked his ears up. Then it got much louder and seemed to go past my bedroom window; I can’t describe it well, but it was a sort of yelping, screaming noise, combined with what sounded like something trying to escape from being dragged through the undergrowth. I instantly realized that Schrodi was outside, and this sounded like a cat in pain.

Fearing that he was either fighting with another cat or was being attacked by a fox, I ran outside (in the interests of modesty I won’t state what I was wearing at this point, but suffice it to say it was good that it was a warm night). Outside the screaming and dragging noise was much louder. I ran to the edge of the wood and called for Schrodi but to no avail, and after about 30 seconds the sounds died away. By this point I had been joined by R with a torch and we were both desperately worried that Schrodi had been attacked, but when we went and got our cat locator, we realized that he was actually down in the village. But to put my mind at rest, I went to find him, while R tried to persuade Tora out from hiding under our car.

I found Schrodi just outside the village (minus his collar but that’s a different story) and much against his will, carried him home. So the strange noises were nothing to do with either of our cats, because one had been inside, and the other had been half a mile away. R then had the bright idea that something might have been recorded on the webcam. Sure enough, when we looked, about one minute before the noise started there was the scene on the video above (click on the picture for the video). We are 99% sure it was the two badgers tussling with each other and yelling (or whatever the noise badgers make is called) as they crashed through the bracken.

This was a big relief as at least we didn’t have to worry about a mystery animal, but I can’t say after that adrenalin that I slept very well. Particularly as Schrodi then brought me a mouse at 4am.

So not sure if the badgers were fighting or mating (apparently badgers can mate at any time in the year).