I left the backdoor open for a minute and look who came in..!
Uh Oh
From the picture it looks like it's daylight out. A racoon in my house during the day would only make me think of rabies and totally freak me out! Which makes me sad because when I was a kid my grandmother and I would feed racoons every night - peanuts and marshmallows :) We would have 8-10 all around us eating out of our hands. They would come down out of the tree in front of the house like clockwork at 9 pm every night in the summer.
.. LOL ..
S/He looks about as surprised as you probably were!
Those sneaky lil masked bandits are quite the 'forward' characters haint they!?!
Or did you forget that you have a welcome sign hangin' outside your back door also -?- We've a rubber mat on our back porch, that says 'welcome' - and has served its purposes, many times .. with the coons. (heehee)
Now, please dontcha leave us hangin' here. Fill us in on all of the lil details of how you ousted his fanny back outside, and what took place in-between ...
A wonderful opportunity s/he provided - and you pulled it off very well, princessnonie!!
She must've heard you were lookin' for some willing subjects, and volunteered her services. (heehee)
I luv it!
- Magpye
Well, she's VERY fond of cat food..So I grabbed some cat chow and rattled the dish..she followed me right out the door..
I too used to be very afraid of the threat of rabies and would freak out if I saw them during the day, but this lil stinker is very tame and has learned what time I feed the cats..She lines up with the cats at dinner and breakfast..She's a nursing mother and I
think she's willing to take some risks to get back to the den quickly..Last year she
brought her 4 babies who played around my feet while she ate.
TooCute!
I really didn't mean to tame them but when they put their paws on the door and look in I can't say No
Ohhh .. tsk, tsk .. you're such a clever cheater, princessnonie (heehee)
Sooooo, she's jes another one of yer pawed yunkins! (lol) Stands to reason you've fetched a name for this masked mistress ...
Besides her young - does she ever bring along friends every now and again -?-
I'll be keepin' my fangers crossed .. that not nary a neighborhood hound/dawg ever takes an interest in her .. or picks up her scent.
Jes enjoy her/them .. but do, please .. continue to be careful ...
((huggs))
- Magpye
This message was edited Jul 19, 2006 4:58 PM
(and a wee late) .. big ol 'hearty' welcome to DG, to you .. AlanaG !!
- Magpye
I do worry about her... just as tho she was one of the cats.....But she has lots of trees to climb for safety...the dogs on either side of me are seemingly pretty gentle guys..Thank goodness..
The coyote's have left for greener pastures, and I think the poor Bobcats have moved on also..
I am so glad to know that I'm not the only softy for these wonderful critters. I fed a mommy coon too and her 3 babies still visit me every day to be fed. Sometimes 3-4 times a day and at all hours. They peep in my windows, scratch at my back door and if they find a door opened they head straight for the kitchen. They wake me up in the middle of the night sometimes. After they eat they hang out for hours and play with everything they can get their little paws on.
I love them but sometimes I get awfully irritated with their playful destruction lol!
When I look at those little faces and see the trust they have in me I just can't say no.
Princessnonie ... I think you are the greatest!
Vee8ch,
I laughed out loud at your description of them and the picture is TOO cute..
Yes, it is very good to find a kindred soul..
I'll be smiling all day at the thought of you all down in sunny Fla..
princessnonie
My yunguns love sweets. They have to have their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches first before they'll eat their dry catfood :)
They rock in the two rockingchairs on my porch (adorable). Steal the cat toys (not adorable) and they think swinging on my windchimes is real funny. Little monsters that I call the 3 Stooges.
What am I going to do if they are all female and someday bring me grandbabies. Oh My!
Hey, maybe our coon kids could spend summers at each others houses! And be pen pals and share hand me downs lol!
Your 3 Stooges are hilarious..
I can see them swinging on the windchimes..
Mine got in the Garage and opened a huge carton of frisbies that my husband had for business promotion items..They spread frisbies all over the garage..It's like walking thru a mine field if you walk in there in the dark..
I'm a little worried about having females and grandchildren and great grandchildren, etc also..But my mother racoon kind of runs them off when she can..
The freezer lost it's mind and blew a fuse and we didn't discover it for a couple of days, so the coons will be eating Turkey Pot Pies and Healthy Choice dinners for a long time..(They were on sale and I'm a sucker for sales )
Hey, I like the idea of coon kids hand me downs..
Well shoot! I was hinting at an invitation for the 3 stooges to visit you for the rest of summer vacation. Then I could conveniently forget what I did with them! ... hee!
I wish I could've seen yours playing with the frisbies! lol! That would have been a funny thing to watch. If they were all over the floor you know she was having a good time for sure :)
Is your freezer in the garage by chance? You know how intelligent raccoons are. It could've been planned.
(Off topic .. but, only momentarily tho') .. May I ask you a question, Vee8ch -?- (it's probably more of an 'observation') .. hee
- Magpye
This message was edited Jul 22, 2006 5:31 PM
Of course Magpye :) As long as it's not an embarassing question or observation I think I can handle it ... lol! ... gulp .... Go for it! :)
Ahh, heckers no ...
Ol 'goofy' me .. jes wanted to inquire about your 'user name'. * Is 'Vee8ch' .. a wee cute lil 'play' on your initials -?-
(didn't mean to make a mountain out of a molehill either! .. Sorry)
.. LOL .. Where's my goofy dunce cap!!
- Magpye
VH ... awww shucks ... I could of had a VH! Magpye's are known for being goofy. Silly girl :) And I thought it was gonna be something like "why is your deck such a mess?" ha!
This message was edited Jul 22, 2006 7:10 PM
My parents had a raccoon in Ashland that learned to open the door and turn on the hot water. It would bring in it's food in to wash it. My parents said they wouldn't have minded but they could never train it to turn off the water or shut the door.
Can you believe how smart they are?
Maybe ours really did turn off the freezer..Here she is exiting the garage where the freezer is kept...Is the light in her eyes from the camera or is she the racoon from Hell..
You all be the judge!!
I bet she really did turn off the freezer.
I know she did! I can see the guilty look in those eyes. lol!
Wonderful pictures.
I love these guys! Possums too! We babied baby possums whose mother was run over. They were so little they didn't even have hair. The size of half my pinky finger. All nine of them lived and would hang on our fingers. We fed them every hour for weeks with an eyedropper. After about 4 months, delivered them to a WL rehabilitator. Love those pictures!
Bless you Knolan..You're a wildlife angel..
Did you take them to TWRC..?
We've taken baby birds, and squirrels there.
Wonderful place..
We feed the possums too, but ours arn't as tame as the racoons ..
When our cats were kittens they would eat with a possum and play with her tail..
Awesome! No, we took them to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator (I plan to get my license in several years.....after my cats have gone on to heaven....can't do it with them here). I've also taken birds and squirrels, and snakes and turtles...anything that has needed help, to her. And she has yet to ever lose any of them. I thought for sure, after my cats had gotten hold of a baby mockingbird that it was over.....this lady worked miracles.
I secretly feed a possum family. Put dog food out for them. They scare my DH to death!
Funny story...I'll be quick.....I was coming home from work one day and the entrance to our neighborhood is off a main highway. There was a rather large turtle in the middle of the road and I just knew he was going to get run over. So I pulled off and parked. Walked out in the middle of the highway, everyone honking at me and tried to pick the big guy up. He was SOOOO heavy! And then his head and legs came out...oh, those claws! and he hissed and I screamed and dropped him. (Mind you I'm in heels, hose and skirt) Gather up my courage, pick him back up, the whole time he's hissing at me and those legs and claws are going crazy and I'm able to waddle over to the grass and place him down. He/she urinated all over me. As I'm buckling in, I look over and there he is, pointed in the same direction to try and cross that highway again. Perhaps his nest was on the other side? Well, I got back out, picked him up again, put him in the backseat and drove him to the creek (which does go under the particular highway he was on so I'm sure if he was trying to get back to a nest he would have been able to find it). When I went to get him out of my car, there came those claws again. And he got my shin like you wouldn't believe! Ruined my skirt, tore my hose, broke a heel! All for a turtle! Gotta love 'em.
Knolan! rofl! So funny!
If you guys want to see the cutest baby coon pics check this out. Bottle fed! So precious!
http://davesgarden.com/place/t/630146/
Those are the cutest pictures I've ever seen!
knolan,
Funny story
I too have rescued turtles who subsequently pee'd all over me..
Ungrateful lot if you ask me..
Vee8ch,
Thanks for the Hyperlink
What adorable pictures
I've often wondered why the connection between a turtle being carried and urinating: stress, no doubt, since they never naturally become airborne. In any case, it seems to happen every time: particularly a treat if you rescue a snapper, since you need to hold them at the back end to protect your hands.
When I lived in Louisiana we had these turtles we called alligator snapping turtles..
Really intimidating looking guys..
So one day one was in the street and I was trying to scare him back into the canal with a broom..
My 80 year old , recently transplanted from California, father on the sidelines yelling "pick him up..pick him up"..
Well, I didn't , I just swept him off the street and back into the canal and my father accused me of turtle abuse for months..
I shoulda let him pick him up..
Yeah, you should have!! That would have taught him!!
I have been told that snappers can, on occasion, reach back far enough to bite even when you're holding them just from the rear; so I guess you shouldn't take safety for granted. I can only say I was never bitten: but sure was urinated on a lot....
Vee8ch,
Did your babies come back? Or did they really go off to start their own families? I know you'll miss their cute antics..I bet they return now and then ..
Spartacusaby,
I think I'll stick with the broom with snappers..
Only one came around for a few days. He played on the porch all by himself.
This morning two showed up. I let them eat in the kitchen. Then I gave them each a boiled egg and scooted them out the door. ... lol!
The one. He's eating but it looks like he's saying "oops did I say that?"
He grabbed a little kittie poopie out of the cat box and played with it for a long time. He even washed it. Gosh was he bored or what?
Geez Vee8ch,
Get the kid some REAL toys..
He's beautiful! I wish I had that kind of visitor in the morning but I'm afraid my "vicious cats" scare them all off.
Knolan,
We have many more cats then we have racoon visitors.. ( Even tho all the cats are spayed and neutered, I am "gifted" at finding strays in bad situations
Anyhow, somtimes the cats slap the coons on the head, cat style, but the coons never retaliate..It's really quite amazing as I'm sure the racoons could take the cats down in a hurry if they tried.
One time the mother racoon eyed my Siamese kitten.I gave her a harsh word and she stopped..Never did know if it was the Siamese mask that got her attention and she thought it was one of her own, or if it was the possibility of dinner..I have heard it said that racoons are not safe around young kittens..
I dunno tho..
I have 4 cats and they all tolerate the coons. None of them wants a coon in their face but they allow them within a couple of feet. Any closer than that and coon gets a slap and a hiss and sometimes chased a few feet. The coons are very submissive but they don't let the kitties totally boss them around. They just find a different route to get to where they want to go.
Yes Princessnonie we need some new play things around here. They've destroyed every cat toy. I think I'll get them some hard plastic little kid toys that aren't so easy to tear up.
For as long as the coons have been visiting they've been fascinated with the litter box. Always digging for treasures. lol! It would be fun to have a play sand box filled with little toys just for coons. But then I wouldn't be able to keep the cats out of it.
Knolan, any time I find your name on a thread, I know I will get a good story - and this one was no exception!!!!!!!!
I also am a lover of raccoons. Haven't seen too many where I live now, but back in Seattle, had a family of them every year. They'd sit outside and wait for me to bring them a big bowl of dry dog food (I bought the cheapest I could find!). I'll have to look around, but somewhere or other I have a picture of four babies watching me the way I thought I was watching them!!
Aren't they the cutest????? I'll never forget the time we went camping....bunch of mom's and daughters, and me and my little one were snuggled down in our little 2 man tent. I had popped that "Jiffy Pop" pocorn over the open fire before bed and there was a lot left over. As we're trying to fall asleep we could hear the racoons scraping around. The next thing you know, we hear the popcorn fall to the ground and then we hear it being dragged. Right into our tent! The little devil was trying to keep the other guys away from it. We just let him stay and eat and giggled for the next few hours. Everyone wondered why we were the last to get up the next morning. I was actually considering letting him snuggle down with us but then thought about possible lice, etc. and had to resist the urge.