Raccoons stopped by for a visit just now!

[Buckshot]

.............I haven't seen any around for awile. Did have a pair in the kitchen eating the cat's food one night. They came in through the catdoor in the screen door. The computer desk is at the end of the kitchen by a sliding glass door. The door was open and I just now saw some movement from the corner of my eye and it was Mama and this year's kit I guess.

They came right up to the cat door slick as you please and she just stood there and looked at me a minute, then turned and they sauntered off. No big deal to them. Just go find some other unguarded food someplace :D.

...............Buckshot

[Scrounger]

.............I haven't seen any around for awile. Did have a pair in the kitchen eating the cat's food one night. They came in through the catdoor in the screen door. The computer desk is at the end of the kitchen by a sliding glass door. The door was open and I just now saw some movement from the corner of my eye and it was Mama and this year's kit I guess.

They came right up to the cat door slick as you please and she just stood there and looked at me a minute, then turned and they sauntered off. No big deal to them. Just go find some other unguarded food someplace :D.

...............Buckshot

You're a cat lover? Expect a visit from the CarpetMan...

[Buckshot]

............Yup, have a Siamese we inherited from the daughter when she moved to a 'no pet' apartment. He's okay, a real card. When the raccoons were eating his food (dry) they were real noisy, which got my attention. I looked over toward the kitchen door and saw him sitting there in the dining room looking through the kitchen door. Obviously it wasn't him eating. He's no idiot. He wasn't going to contend the rights to his food with those two!

...............Buckshot

[waksupi]

I saw three young coons last Friday night on the way home, just about dark. I immediately hit the brakes, and started looking for my leather gloves, as I was going to catch one. Lucky for me, I didn't have any handy.

I've had coons for pets over the years, when I lived back east. The last one I had was a big boar, that I got as a baby of about three pounds or so. Nasty way beyond thier weight class, even as babies, believe me!

That one (Rocky, of course) kind of had the run of the house, making it's entrance and exits through my upstairs bedroom window. That was ok, but at daybreak when he would come home, he always had to give my nose a little bite, before he would curl up next to my head and go to sleep. He bit too hard one time, and I grabbed him to bounce him off the wall. I discovered he had fangs and claws, and knew how to use them. You can't throw a coon, that doesn't want to be throwed.

I had a red doberman at the same time, and they were great buddies, for the most part. The coon would get on the back of a rocking chair, and it and the dog would chew and growl as if they were kiling each other for hours on end. They'd both be covered with slobber from end to end. Occassionally, one would bite a little too hard. There would be a little yip, they would stop and lick each other, and start right back in again.

The worst thing about it, from the dogs veiwpoint, was the coon's habit of washing food. The coon loved dog food, so would always have the water bowl a murky mass of kibble soup. Old Groucho, the dog, would look real sad until I would freshen things up for him.

The old coon finally met it's end during hunting season. I'm sure on one of it's nightly forays, one of the local houndsmen probably treed and shot him, at least he never came back after the first part of season. And I was careful to keep any traps away from the area, as the thing was as curious as a packrat, and would get into anything.

[Scrounger]

Hey, Waksupi, this house you lived in as a youngster, the one with bedrooms upstairs, did it by chance have an inside toilet?

[waksupi]

Scrounger, yes, as a matter of fact, that particular place did have a toilet in it. Iowa was pretty uppity.

[Buckshot]

...........I don't know what it was, but since forever I had wanted a pet raccoon. It was either father's day or my birthday, I don't remember now but Donna said she had a surprise for me and it was at our farriers's house. Turned out to be a tiny little male raccoon kit. Apparently our farrier's girlfriend had a breeding pair of 'coons or somehting.

Anyway this little guy was tiny. Had to stop by the grocery store and buy baby formula and some bottles and other junk. No internet (Heck, no TSR-80's even) so it was library time to get info and make sure we took care of him right. We named him Tinker. He was so little that after feeding him you had to wipe him with a damp warm rag to stimulate bowel movements, which I guess the mother did by licking.

After feeding he'd always want to go to sleep, but we'd put him in the litter box and not let him out till he did his business. In a couple days all you had to do was put him on the lfoor after feeding and he'd run in the utility room and get in the litter box all by himself. AFter he got a bit bigger he'd want to play, and as he got older and bigger he wanted to play longer. One thing about a raccoon is that when they want to play, they're going to play. You either play or they'll tear the house down.

Somehow or the other we'd ended up with some kittens. Tinker was kept in a pretty good sized cage in the utility room. I guess it was about 3' wide and 5' long and a couple feet tall. MAde out of 2x2's and aviary wire. So the kittens went in there with him till we could figure out what to do with them. Tinker got them all litterbox trained in a jiffy. We had a piece of carpet in the cage, rolled up like a tube and that's where Tinker slept. The only thing was, when Tinker went to bed those kittens had to also. He'd gather them up one by one and stuff them in the carpet tube and then crawl in there with them.

Those were the most phsyco trumatized cats in the world. He also played a little rough as he was about twice thier size.

Tinker was like some cats. He was a big chicken. If someone came to the door he'd haul ass and hide. He'd try to get up on the shelf in the hall closet. What I ended up doing was to nail a strip of carpet up the wall inside the closet, and he'd shoot up that like a lizard up a block wall.

My daughter Christian used to dress him up in doll clothes and push him around in a stroller. He'd tolerate that for maybe 20 minutes. It didn't take him long to understand that good stuff came out of the refrigerator. We had a side by side and I had to use a coat hanger through the handles to keep him out. If someone got up and headed toward the kitchen he'd stop whatever it was he was doing and watch them. If they went near the reefer he was there in a flash. All you could do was clamp him between your lags if you opened the door or he was climbing up the shelves.

He'd get treats out of the reefer. I'd get a paper plate and put an egg, a slice of lunch meat, a few grapes or a half an apple, and maybe a half slice of American cheese. That coon LOVED cheese but it'd stop him up like a cork if he got too much. When he was little we'd let him play in the kitchen sink. We'd put the dish drainer half in so he could use it to climb out and in no time he'd be asleep on a dish towel in the corner.

When he was bigger we'd run a few inches of water in the bath tub. He had several toys and he could entertain himself for most of an hour. You had to watch him because if something caught his attention on the counter he'd be up there like a flash.

I fiannly had to build him a cage outside. It was 10' square and 6' tall with a plywood box up high in one corner and a big branch and a tire swing. We were going to get him fixed but my cousin had a friend who had a female raccoon they could no longer keep as they were moving to an apartment, so I naturally figured we'd make baby raccoons. Well it didn't turn out that way. She was much older and I think she'd been fixed. It was clear she didn't want anything to do with Tinker in any regard.

WHen male raccoons reach sexual menarchy they're like tom cats, and roam. Tinker had gotten out of his cage several times, but always would come to the door. One morning we went out to the cage and he was gone. I guess he went down to the creek in San Timoteo Canyon or the coyotes got him. HE sure was a lot of fun. My daughter swears to this day she is going to get another pet coon.

.............Buckshot

[NVcurmudgeon]

Rick, Life with a pet coon sounds like fun, though it seems to have been a challlenge to your mechanical skills keeping Tinker where he should be, and out of where he shouldn't be. It wouldn't work here, Fran would not rest until she had moved the coon into the master bedroom!

[StarMetal]

Bill,

None of that would work here in Tennessee....the Tennesseans would eat the coon!!! Or let the dogs loose and have hunt.

Joe

[StarMetal]

Aaahh...Buckshot...our own Harry Potter!!

Joe