Not what you think, I bet. Our A/C is out and that's bad enough. Especially with all the other serious problems my disabled DH has had this summer. We REALLY didn't need this. Anyway, one part has already been replaced, but it turns out another is needed...you know how it goes. So we're waiting until that part is available. We put a little bitty portable A/C in the bedroom yesterday, because DH can't tolerate heat, with all his medical problems. I had a few screen windows and the lower part of the rear screen door open so the rest of the house won't get too hot. So last night I heard noises and got up and turned on some lights. I discovered a couple of little coons carrying on making noises by the back door. I chased them away and went back to bed. Then it started up again. Same 2 by the back door. Only this time I found a container of Delicat lying not far inside that door. I suspected something, but I was so tired I just looked around, found no intruder, so closed the whole back door and went to bed. Then this morning, I discovered the corner of the screen door back there had been torn. That dratted coon! Must have known there were goodies inside and easy pickins are very enticing to a mama coon...or was it the mama? If it had been a human, well, I would have called the sheriff's department. But not a wild animal! Oh crap! What am I going to do now? This is obviously not your run-of-the-mill coon...fiendishly clever...it really amazes me. The mama already made off with a couple of cat bowls. And we live in a relatively isolated corner of a rural county. Not many resources available, you know? A couple days ago, one of the neighbors from the neighborhood association had two abandoned dogs picked up by the county...owner moved and just left them...not a word bad enough for a person who would do that. I felt bad, because they were nice well-behaved friendly dogs and I could have found some organization to take them (pets some place would have taken if enough calls had been made) if anybody had let me know in time. But they aren't likely to live long after the county got them. That pathetic neighborhood association around here isn't exactly top-rate...what can I say? Sorry to rant, but I can't help it!
Masked Intruder Struck in the Night
Linda, those raccoons are really clever, they act a lot like humans.
Sorry you are having so many difficulties, I hope things straighten out soon.
Josephine.
Our area has a large acreage that they use for a Girl Scout camp mostly day use. Each June they have a 5 day camp gathering. Well for snacks they give the girls cookies. But we're talk over 100 little girls so no one wanted to haul cookies back and forth. So they put the cookies in a cooler. Next morning they'd been robbed by racoons. Next night they put them in a cooler and stacked all the other coolers on top of the one with the cookies (about 10 or so). The little dickenses knocked all the other coolers off, opened the one with the cookies and got them again. Racoons are not stupid and are agile enough to pretty much do whatever they want. lol.
they freak me out w/ their little "human-like" hands.
They needed a good sturdy lock on something for those cookies! We once had a baby coon in the area that the mother apparently abandoned or something. The hungry critter literally ate a hole through the bottom of our Rubbermaid garbage can. We always use tie-downs to lock up any can that contains anything that might be remotely edible, otherwise it would have just pulled the lid off, in spite of whatever the manufacturer devised to fasten the lid onto the can.They're not like other wild animals!
I have found that the easiest way to get along with them is to give them what they want.
So we buy cheap dog food and scatter it away from the house..we don't feed it all in one place, we make them look for it... If I put out their food they behave, if I forget ,they dig in pots, overturn things, etc.. and if that doesn't work, they stand on their hind legs and stare in my door..
Lynn
I was watching one of those animal planet shows a couple of years back and it was about a lady that had been feeding the "coons" because she thought they were so cute. They had finally gotten so bad that she had called trappers to come take them away. They were filming it and when they shined the light up the trees and the roof of her house were completely covered with them. The officials estimated there were hundreds of them. I have never seen anything like it in my life.
Patsy
Yikes,
So far, they seem to run each other off ...
I hope it stays that way..
There was a time when we fed some. But they got too aggressive. And with wild animals, you never know if there's rabies or something. The little ones still did quite a bit of damage, even with feeding. So I decided not to. But they still steal. We had offers in the past to trap them. But the person wanted them for pelts. I won't do that.
Here, I have seen racoon relocation services, so I keep that number handy..I do worry about rabies..
So far, ours are not aggressive with us or with the cats.. The big aggressive males seem to move to the woods ...
Speaking of the little devils, here is a young one we trapped last night. Isn't he pitiful-looking? He seems so scared. We took him to the animal control people for relocation. This am at about 4am we heard all this ruckus outside so husband went out to look. He noticed the young trapped one and the nearby mother hissing at him. We suspect we have a whole family prowling our yard.
The last 3 days or so the dogs/cat dishes have been licked clean. I thought that was unusual but attributed it to them "coming around and not being so darned spoiled". WRONG! coons were the appreciative gourmands.
another shot
I caught one in a cage one evening - when I found him about 10 pm, he was hanging with all 4 paws from the top of the cage and was using his little behind to push on the door of the cage. He was sooo cute. Called the SPCA the next morning and they basically said to bring him in, they'll give him a hot bath and hot meal, then release him back in the neighborhood. I questioned them and they said that was where his/her family was. I didn't see the point. He'd be back even faster tomorrow after the spa treatment so I let him go.
Several month's later, I heard a ruckus on the back step - was two full size and four little ones all fighting for the cat food bowl. Had to count the little pink ears as they were scrambing all other each other while the two adults looked on. They are so cute (until they start damaging something or make their way into the house/attic.)
This message was edited Jul 30, 2007 6:53 PM
Separating a family of coons this time of year is questioned by some. There was a little one left on its own somehow in my area once. It was pretty hungry...ate a hole in my Rubbermaid garbage can when it couldn't get the lid off. I often use tie downs to keep wild animals out of the garbage cans. Unfortunately, they also think catfood is the best fast food around.