Stumpy perhaps?

I can only wonder...... is this one of the gang that just had an accident leading to a shorter tail, or a new visitor to the neighborhood, or just maybe it's Belle's one surviving kit from her first unfortunate litter, Stumpy!?! I couldn't get a good enough look to see if it's a boy or a girl, but I'd like to think after he left that fateful den box with his Mom that night back in June 2007 that he found his little niche in the woods, and has had a wonderful life out there since loosing part of his tail as a baby. So I'm sticking with the latter on that one! :)

Things have been very quiet out in the woods with all this snow. I had the camera out there for about 15 days and only 4 short lived raccoon visits, including Stumpy here. Considering the snow is thigh deep on me, and still too soft to walk on top of for anything heavier than a mouse......I'm not surprised! It's just too cumbersome to walk through that, and for smaller mammals, too dangerous to be caught in! The coyotes are not as hampered by it judging by the highway of tracks they have left out there!

With another 15-23 inches predicted for us over the next couple days that may change too. I have been having enough difficulty getting out there as it is, this will not make things easier by any means. Uggghhhhhh!