A new visiter

[Fox Mike]

Went to the front door tonight to call Slick, my cat, to come in for the night. Yes, he does come when called...generally. As I opened the front door I noticed something move. Wrong color for Slick. This guy was wearing a mask. A raccoon was checking out one of my bird feeders. I have seen them roaming the area but this is the first visit I have had. He looked at me and casually walked off the porch.

 

[Tom W]

I recall standing on the top steps on my back deck wearing my flip flops and two baby raccoons headed up the steps to raid the cat food. They saw me, eased up really slow and started sniffing my toes. It was all I could do to be quiet and still. They looked at each other and waddled back down the steps, under my truck and wandered back into the woods.

Later that night I heard the cat hollering so I looked out the back door window and the cat had a raccoon wedged up against the wall and was slapping the tar out of it. The coon had it's chin to the floor and it's butt arched up to intimidate the cat, but the cat was having none of it. The poor coon tried to make it to the steps but the cat had it blocked, and was still swatting the critter. It finally jumped off the side, a four to five foot drop, on to a floor of bricks that I had a man place there.... Honyock was not a cat to be messed with......

 

[RSIno1]

Neighbors woke up to noise one night and found racoon came in dog door and was having fun in the kitchen.

 

[Colonel Daddy]

Not a coon story but.........one night was sitting at the computer and reading the Ruger Forum when something bristly-hairy bruised my feet! It didn't feel like Dawg. Looked over on the couch and Dawg was fast asleep. I swallerd hard and rolled my chair back quick as possible!! It was a possum!! Managed to herd him outa the house and never did figure out how he got in! :?

 

[Fox Mike]

We have been here since '81. I have seen lots of opossums in an around the yard and on both front and back porches but this was my first coon.

 

[contender]

I don't have the time to relate all the coon stories I have.

Suffice it to say,,, avoid all contact with them,, as my favorite phrase to describe them is; "A raccoon is like a little bear on crack cocaine with 4 feet to use, and an attitude like a pissed off griz."

 

[Fox Mike]

I don't have the time to relate all the coon stories I have.

Suffice it to say,,, avoid all contact with them,, as my favorite phrase to describe them is; "A raccoon is like a little bear on crack cocaine with 4 feet to use, and an attitude like a pissed off griz."

I had a friend who had a pet raccoon. That was the nastiest dispositioned critter I have ever encountered. I never mess with any wild animal. For their size a human is easily outmatched by most. A classic example would be putting a cat in a tub of water. :shock:

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Recently saw a small coon approaching the patio, seemed sorta lethargic. I went out and hollered at it and waved my arms. It stopped momentarily, then hissed at me and continued advancing. I figured this wasn't right so I grabbed the back-door-20ga and gave it a charge of #6 full in the face. Flipped over, got itself reorganized, hissed at me and headed for me with enthusiasm. Another dose of #6 stopped the party.

Gathered it up on my shovel and carried it way back in the woods where I left it. Should I have buried it? Didn't really feel like messing around with it.

 

[Jeepnik]

Had a cat badly mauled by a coon. Yes, the cat was quite elderly, but with those prehensile feet and a mouth full of sharp teeth they can do a lot of damage in a hurry.

Possums I don't mind, kinda cute. Skunks I don't mind, our neighborhood skunk does a good job of snail, slug and black widow control. Coons, well lets just say I put them in the same category as yotes.

 

[pete44ru]

.

If it's liver wasn't spotty, I'd have that Racoon in my stewpot, tuit' suite. :mrgreen:

I love the dark brown/sweet meat - better than prime beef.


.

 

[RoninPA]

If there are possums around and they aren't bothering anything, I let them be. They eat gazillions of ticks and they really just want to be left alone. IIRC possums also do not carry rabies. And they are kinda cute in an ugly way. The wife likes how they carry their babies around.

Now coons and red squirrels I watch closely if nearby. The reds are just flat mean whereas I have so many grays around I couldn't get rid of them if I tried (and the wife doesn't like squirrel meat). Coons being a rabies carrier if I see one acting suspicious it gets taken out with the suppressed rifle and then I call my friend who is the animal control officer to come pick it up to have it tested. He has no problems with me dispatching them and calling him afterwards.

 

[Jeepnik]

If there are possums around and they aren't bothering anything, I let them be. They eat gazillions of ticks and they really just want to be left alone. IIRC possums also do not carry rabies. And they are kinda cute in an ugly way. The wife likes how they carry their babies around.

Now coons and red squirrels I watch closely if nearby. The reds are just flat mean whereas I have so many grays around I couldn't get rid of them if I tried (and the wife doesn't like squirrel meat). Coons being a rabies carrier if I see one acting suspicious it gets taken out with the suppressed rifle and then I call my friend who is the animal control officer to come pick it up to have it tested. He has no problems with me dispatching them and calling him afterwards.

Possums can get rabies, but it is pretty darned rare. Must be because they are marsupials. I've never even heard of a rabid possum. Do they have rabies in Aussy land?

 

[Mike J]

I have seen 3 or 4 rabies alerts locally this year due to coons attacking people, being killed, and testing positive for rabies after death. I'd have probably burned the dead coon just to avoid disease being spread.

 

[GunnyGene]

If there are possums around and they aren't bothering anything, I let them be. They eat gazillions of ticks and they really just want to be left alone. IIRC possums also do not carry rabies. And they are kinda cute in an ugly way. The wife likes how they carry their babies around.

Now coons and red squirrels I watch closely if nearby. The reds are just flat mean whereas I have so many grays around I couldn't get rid of them if I tried (and the wife doesn't like squirrel meat). Coons being a rabies carrier if I see one acting suspicious it gets taken out with the suppressed rifle and then I call my friend who is the animal control officer to come pick it up to have it tested. He has no problems with me dispatching them and calling him afterwards.

Possums do sometimes carry leprosy tho. Not a good idea to handle them without some throwaway rubber gloves.

 

[Fox Mike]

If there are possums around and they aren't bothering anything, I let them be. They eat gazillions of ticks and they really just want to be left alone. IIRC possums also do not carry rabies. And they are kinda cute in an ugly way. The wife likes how they carry their babies around.

Now coons and red squirrels I watch closely if nearby. The reds are just flat mean whereas I have so many grays around I couldn't get rid of them if I tried (and the wife doesn't like squirrel meat). Coons being a rabies carrier if I see one acting suspicious it gets taken out with the suppressed rifle and then I call my friend who is the animal control officer to come pick it up to have it tested. He has no problems with me dispatching them and calling him afterwards.

Possums do sometimes carry leprosy tho. Not a good idea to handle them without some throwaway rubber gloves.

Never heard that. I thought it was armadillos that carried that trait.