Just an update about our rats.

The other day Bob was visited by a local fur buyer who was just wanting to make conversation.  To me it was a spying method on his part to make sure we had not sold our furs.  Yesterday he had another visit from the same guy, who wanted to see the furs hanging in the shed.  Bob always likes to show off the good work we do and so they visited the fur shed.  The comment made by the potential buyer was: “You didn’t catch many big ones did you”?

Oh boy.  I don’t know what Bob said at that time, but they eventually went back into Bob’s house, where the spreadsheet of who caught how many was sitting on his desk.  The buyer picked it up and inquired as to what it was…Bob told him and he studied it for awhile and then, like usual, changed the subject…the conversation went on and as it did, he calmly folded up the paper and stuck it in his pocket….Now folks this is the kind of guy we are dealing with.

Did he ask if he could have it?  Nope.  Just took it and Bob sat quietly and watched him do it.  That is all just fine and dandy, it helps me support where I have been coming from for years…I just don’t like dealing with this type of guy.  His head is all wrapped around one thing…himself!  He cares not how hard we work to get the furs we have and he just wants to offer us a token of what the furs are worth, knowing all the while he is going to make a killing when he sells them….No we did not catch many big rats this year…We caught a TON of BIG ONES!  Over 90% of the 731 are over 14 inches and 14 inches are considered Large.  And while that probably doesn’t mean much to an outsider, of the 90%, 90% of them are over 15 inches!  Which means the majority of our rats will grade out at Xtra Large or Bigger.  Tomorrow we are going to sort them out by size and do our own grading.  Those results will be posted up on here and then you can see (pictures) of this 90% I’m talking about.

So, he steals the paper, which by the way has nothing of importance to him, except maybe bragging to his co-horts and telling them how much he knows about our trapping success for this year.  I’m Ok with that…Ones reputation for “Things”, good or bad, always precede you in whatever you do.

And the story goes on:

About 8 last night Bob called me to inform me that “he” had called and given a bid on our rats…$9.30 something…I didn’t really pay much attention to the amount as I know what we are doing and it just reinforced what I have told Bob would happen as the crunch time nears for sending rats off to auction.

Bob told him that was not near enough to peak our interest and that he would have to offer over $10 or we would not even consider the bid.  “He scoffed”.

So, what do I expect now?  You know he is having a hard time securing furs, especially muskrats.  All of the trappers had a bad time catching them, the year was an odd one, with a late ice melt and an early run.  The catch rate for everyone except us, was maybe 1/2 to 2/3 rds what they normally catch.  So this buyer is having to pay a bit more than usual to get his “batch” up before he ships them off and our 700 plus count is really looking like a premium to him (this is all speculation on my part, but I know Greed when I see it).  My suspicion is telling me that today (Tuesday) he will visit again and make a higher offer…something in the $9.50 range and will promise that if he gets more than he expects, he will make up the difference to us after he gets his fur check.  EVERY trapper in this area has heard him say this and NONE of US have EVER seen him come back and give us more money…NONE!  So, does he think we will fall for that line again?  Come on! (Baby, you have such beautiful eyes..I have never seen such gorgeous eyes in my life!  I need to get closer to you…Oh Baby…Oh Baby…OHHHHH)

But, my speculation is not over….Bob will tell him again we want something over $10 and that we are going to be grading our furs ourselves tomorrow, which we have planned and “he” will invite himself down to watch…you watch and see…I’ll make sure I have a picture of “him” sitting there with his coffee cup, drooling over this large batch of $20 rats passing before his eyes, his left leg twitching as the day progress’.  And he will sit there and watch us grade these various piles of Xtra Large and Xtra Xtra large rats into smaller piles of damage…Big damage down to slightly damaged…as we want to make ourselves aware of how the auction house grades.  We will be very tough on our grading and “he” will be sitting there all the while wishing he had his hands on them…his mind will be racing.  When we are satisfied and ready to bag them up, he will make another offer in the $9.80 range and then spit and shuffle off when we tell him NO.

When he is gone, we will bag them up in official Ok-Doki NAFA bags, put our tags on them and put them away in a locked environment while they wait for our Friday rendezvous with the man who picks up fur for this auction.

My story is not finished:

Later in the evening of Wednesday, “he” will call Bob one last time and make an offer of $10, straight through for our rats.  Bob will tell him, “we will think about that” and let him sweat the night away at his home, hoping Bob will call him on Thursday morning.  After he has had some time drinking his coffee, he will then call Bob and ask about his decision on the $10…Bob will tell him NO!  But then, he will continue to bug Bob at least once more on Thursday, quite possibly with a higher bid, but not much higher and then again on Friday a couple of times.  He will most likely come to Bob’s on Friday with a personal visit…

Well, that’s my speculative take on it all!  Let’s see how things play out.  On the trap line I was fooled every day I tried to let you know how my expectancy was with the rats being caught and every time I was wrong…close a time or two, but never right on with my expectancy.  Am I expecting too much from this guy in this regard?  I think not, but we will see.

Bears Butt

March 25, 2014