Hi, everyone. I'm really in need of some expert opinions on this very bizarre finding...
I found this... body part in the middle of my back yard a day ago. I saw it the previous day, but only as a random object I couldn't discern (I thought it was some branch or something). Yesterday, I came up to it and it appears to be a leg from some hoofed animal. It was rained on overnight so it's darker-colored than it was before.
I live in the suburbs (small deserty mountain/canyon region nearby), with my yard adjoining other people's yards. The only animals I've seen in my yard are gophers, hawks, gray foxes, opossums, and skunks. And it's been a couple months since I've even seen the foxes. There's definitely no deer near me, only some miles further east (and only in small numbers), and I don't know of any neighbors of mine that hunt.
This is really creeping me out. I'm female and haven't a clue why this would be in the middle of my back yard. If there's some psycho fixated on me, if it's a threat, if some animal pulled it from some hunters' garbage, or lord knows what...
I'm posting here because I think it looks like a deer or goat leg, but I'm no expert and I figures you folks would know the anatomy and hunting reasons better than anyone. What is this and what happened to it? Why are there two doubled over twist-ties on the foot? For tagging, or did somebody bind/torture the animal or something?
I've got some big images of it (click the pics, then click the magnifying glass on the pic on the next page), so you folks can see the details of the foot, where it was cut off (how was it cut?), etc...
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you very much.
