guess who came to dinner
- Thread starter Lee Barner
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In my old neighborhood, this couple kept feeding the trash pandas and posting it on social media. Everybody thought it was cute. There must have been 10 of them! I told them to stop feeding them, the other neighbors kept telling them to stop. Animal control warned them. They thought it was cute until they, mapache, got in the garage and into the attic when they went on vacation.
I can't say I didn't take a bit of satisfaction when I heard about how bad things got torn up...
I can't say I didn't take a bit of satisfaction when I heard about how bad things got torn up...
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The ex rented a little house next to the foothills and planted a vegetable garden. The neighbors told her not to bother planting corn. She was,and still is,stubborn and planted some anyway. The first time she went out to chase the raccoons away,they chased her back into the house. They ate all of her corn...
They're mean little buggers and will put a serious whuppin on a dog twice their size/weight too. Two or more dogs will put one down in short order, but one on one the dog may win, but not without taking some damage.
I learned about coons when I was a kid. My uncle's friend was a coon hunter and had an incredible stable of Walkers and Bluetic's. These were high dollar dogs he bred and sold to other coon hunters. He invited me to go coon hunting one night, so I was a hunting nut and decided sure I will go.
Now this old boy grew up in the hollers of WV and was tougher than rawhide. Worked for General Motors and was the union steward, which he ruled with an iron fist. He told me stories about how he resolved many of the internal disputes in a manner that would be considered politically incorrect in todays world, but I digress.
To make a long story, short we went hunting and the dogs treed one in a small hedge apple tree along a cornfield fence line. He told me that periodically he liked to let the dogs get ahold of one to keep em hot. One treed this close to the ground was a prime candidate to be knocked out of the tree to let the dogs get a taste. He told me to climb up that tree and knock him out with a stick. Well, I knew I would never live it down if I didn't give it a try so up the tree I went. When I got into position he handed me a nice long stick to use. Needless to say, that coon knocked the stick right out of my hand when I poked him and came down that tree like a charging water buffalo. He chased me right out of the tree then sat there with a smug look on his face. I was clearly beaten.
Jim, disgusted at my lack of ability, shoved the lantern in my hand and charged right back up that tree. He knocked that smug little bugger right out of the tree with a single swing.
The melee that ensued when that coon hit the ground was the most vicious display I had ever seen in all of my 16 years on the planet.
I gotta give that coon credit. He held off the 4 dogs for about two or three minutes, but they finally got his back away from the tree and it was all over.
For the record, I will never go coon hunting again. I learned they are a worthy adversary that deserve respect.
I think Jim probably could have whipped one with his bare hands, but not me.
Now this old boy grew up in the hollers of WV and was tougher than rawhide. Worked for General Motors and was the union steward, which he ruled with an iron fist. He told me stories about how he resolved many of the internal disputes in a manner that would be considered politically incorrect in todays world, but I digress.
To make a long story, short we went hunting and the dogs treed one in a small hedge apple tree along a cornfield fence line. He told me that periodically he liked to let the dogs get ahold of one to keep em hot. One treed this close to the ground was a prime candidate to be knocked out of the tree to let the dogs get a taste. He told me to climb up that tree and knock him out with a stick. Well, I knew I would never live it down if I didn't give it a try so up the tree I went. When I got into position he handed me a nice long stick to use. Needless to say, that coon knocked the stick right out of my hand when I poked him and came down that tree like a charging water buffalo. He chased me right out of the tree then sat there with a smug look on his face. I was clearly beaten.
Jim, disgusted at my lack of ability, shoved the lantern in my hand and charged right back up that tree. He knocked that smug little bugger right out of the tree with a single swing.
The melee that ensued when that coon hit the ground was the most vicious display I had ever seen in all of my 16 years on the planet.
I gotta give that coon credit. He held off the 4 dogs for about two or three minutes, but they finally got his back away from the tree and it was all over.
For the record, I will never go coon hunting again. I learned they are a worthy adversary that deserve respect.
I think Jim probably could have whipped one with his bare hands, but not me.
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Sounds like you've set up the Tennesssee Trash Panda Transportation Company.
I get them sniffing around my deck every once in a while and the same pair seem to have an occasional home under my neighbour's deck as I sometimes see them waddling up her driveway at night on the security camera at my gate. She has three cats and a dog, and I have a cat but they seem to avoid each other, which is good thing as trash pandas can get nasty. I figure that, like the bears aroound here, if they don't bother me, I won't bother them.
In 2011 there was a full length documentary on PBS/The Nature of Things called "Raccoon Nation" on an extensive study of the raccoons in the city of Toronto. Worth watching of it's still available.
Actually, back in the 60's my high school buds and I trapped down on the river. We decided we would try to eat everything we trapped. Let me tell you, 'coon isn't much better grilled than a bobcat.
Yeah I've tried it BBQed on the grill. Possum too.
Neither one of them suited my tastes. Both greasy, stringy, tough, and gamey. No thanks.
A number of years ago a momma and two young ones took up residence in my chimney. Tried unsuccessfully to smoke them out, took critter control to get them. Put screened toppers on the chimney after that.
In early November one night the dog started growling while looking out the sliding patio door. I grabbed a flashlight and the beam reflected off 4 eyes staring back. Two fat raccoons were looking at us from behind the Russian maple tree. I yelled at them and they actually took off. We have a few in the neighborhood, usually spotted around the storm drains at night.
In early November one night the dog started growling while looking out the sliding patio door. I grabbed a flashlight and the beam reflected off 4 eyes staring back. Two fat raccoons were looking at us from behind the Russian maple tree. I yelled at them and they actually took off. We have a few in the neighborhood, usually spotted around the storm drains at night.
I was up at 3 am (peril of self employment) and went down to the kitchen to make coffee.I could here crunching from out on the deck where we fed the dog. Still half asleep,I was annoyed that the mrs or kids had left the dog out and walked over to let her in.Woke up a bit more and turned on the porch light. It wasn't Bailey [emoji38]
I've used the CCI Quiet's since they came out in 2012.
Shoot them in the head about half way between the eye and the ear and they work fine, miss that spot and you may have problems like I did on one that made it across the road one night before I could put one in his lungs, he laid right down and never moved after that.
hemiram
Member
My late dog Molly was a killing machine in the back yard for about 12 years. Anything with 4 legs on it that dared to come into HER yard, except other dogs, were attacked and almost always killed. She got insanely good at taking out Possums and Groundhogs. Her two big opponents were a Beaver who she somehow killed without getting a scratch on her, and one single big Raccoon that she didn't kill, but came very close to. He was coming into all the yards at night, and I saw him at the neighbor's pool the night before he made his near fatal mistake of getting into it with Molly. Both my dogs went crazy and that's why I went out there at 2am to see what was going on. Last time they went off the deep end like that, some old guy had eascaped from a nearby nursing home and was standing in the bushes in his pajamas, smoking a cigarette. The Raccoon decided to come into my yard the next evening, and Molly instantly attacked him, with brother King as backup. His wildlife toll was one Skunk years before, he let Molly run the back yard, inside and anywhere else, he ruled with an iron fist. He only intervened if one of his girlfriends came over the fence to visit him, as Molly didn't want them in her yard for a second.
At first, the Raccoon was doing OK, but that all changed when Molly yelped and that put her into kill mode. She took the coon, and threw him into a tree, head first. I thought, "Lucky toss!", and then she did it again. King began to run in and get his shots in and Molly had severely injured the coon to the point she was doing her "death spiral" where she would circle whatever she was going to kill and then would suddenly grab it by the throat and that would be it. The neighbor kid suddenly appeared and grabbed Molly by the tail, and broke her concentration. We took King and Molly inside, and the coon spent the night at the neighbors before animal control took him to be tested for rabies. He was in very bad shape, and was probably going to die anyway. He was rabies free. I looked Molly over and found no injuries at all, except she partially tore a dewclaw. She continued her Possum hunting until about 2 months before she was put down. Even pushing 14, she had no problems killing one in about 20 seconds.
At first, the Raccoon was doing OK, but that all changed when Molly yelped and that put her into kill mode. She took the coon, and threw him into a tree, head first. I thought, "Lucky toss!", and then she did it again. King began to run in and get his shots in and Molly had severely injured the coon to the point she was doing her "death spiral" where she would circle whatever she was going to kill and then would suddenly grab it by the throat and that would be it. The neighbor kid suddenly appeared and grabbed Molly by the tail, and broke her concentration. We took King and Molly inside, and the coon spent the night at the neighbors before animal control took him to be tested for rabies. He was in very bad shape, and was probably going to die anyway. He was rabies free. I looked Molly over and found no injuries at all, except she partially tore a dewclaw. She continued her Possum hunting until about 2 months before she was put down. Even pushing 14, she had no problems killing one in about 20 seconds.
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LVSteve
Member
How did the OP photoshop out the crosshairs in his pictures?
Not just self-employment. Retirement, too. On occasion I've been unable to sleep and gone down to the basement and worked on some project or reloaded for an hour or so.
Those critters are smart. I wouldn't have been surprised if you'd gone to the kitchen to make coffee and found the 'coon had already made one for itself and toast as well.
When I lived in the city there was a large lake in a park where people would walk and for a few years there was a sizable population of both raccoons and skunks that would come up to them to get fed. (Unfortunately people sometimes fed them the wrong stuff, though.) I remember seeing a woman lean down to feed one critter and a raccoon came up behind her and politely pulled on her pant leg as if to say, "What about me?" No one ever got bitten but eventually the Parks Board cleared all the critters out.
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hemiram
Member
My mother lived with me for many years, she had unending health issues, along with a totally messed up back that I have inherited, thanks mom. Anyway, she began to feed the feral cats that lived in our neighborhood. I told her she was making a huge mistake, that there would soon be many more of them, and I was correct. The numbers went from about 4 to about 12, to about 20 very quickly. The kittens weren't as wild as the mothers were, but they weren't anything close to a housecat. One day, she had set up a plastic storage container flipped upside down on top of some sort of legs as a "house" to let them eat out of the rain we were having. She went out into the back porch to put their food out for the night( I had given up fighting her about it), and as usual, the whole pack of them would appear almost instantly. The storage container had blown out into the yard, and she asked me to go get it and bring it up to the porch window so she could set it up again. About that time, I saw the Skunk that had joined the crowd of cats. Mom saw it about a second later, and started yelling, "Oh no, oh no, oh no!", and I saw her move faster than I had thought possible for her at that point in her life. She tossed the whole bag of food out into the back yard and slammed the window shut and came into the house at a good speed, and asked me if I had seen the Skunk. I told her I had seen it just before she started yelling. The Skunk was huge, and looked like he had just come out of a grooming place. Shiny and spotlessly clean. We watched him eat with the cats several times over the next few weeks, until mom finally decided that the cats left at that point, something was killing them off, had to go, and called a local guy who took them, and I'm serious, to a farm out West of town for mouse control. We saw that Skunk, who was very calm compared to the many others in the "Skunk Triangle" as the area we lived was nicknamed, until the West Nile virus (We think) got him along with about 90% of the Crows, Blue Jays, and Cardinals that were seen everywhere. If one of my dogs wasn't attacked because they got too close to a nest, it was a rare spring. It took several years for the birds and Skunks to recover. One odd thing was the huge Blue Jays that ruled the back yards in our neighborhood were replaced by smaller, less aggressive ones for several years, and then one spring, the huge, very nasty ones were back, killing sparrows any chance they got. About the time the big Blue Jays appeared, the Skunk population roared back too, but this time the "standard" Skunks I had seen my entire life in NW Ohio had been replaced with the swirly patterned smaller Skunks I wouldn't see until I got down towards Columbus. At present, I would say the mix in the part of town I live in now is 50/50 of the two. Another recent thing is black squirrels have appeared suddenly. I had never seen any here before a couple of years ago, and once I saw them, I rarely go a few days without seeing another one, or several.
prairieviper
Member
As long as you leave cat food outside, especially canned cat food, you will have visits from raccoons, opossums, skunks and whatever other creatures in close proximity that are looking for an easy meal.
We bring all cat food inside before dusk but even then, sometimes a critter will visit a bit earlier.
We bring all cat food inside before dusk but even then, sometimes a critter will visit a bit earlier.
Puller
Member
I used to relocate live caught raccoons until I spoke with a local game officer and he said if they're causing you enough trouble to trap them you might as well put them down. They are very territorial and when you relocate then you are just putting them in another raccoons territory and one of them will eventually kill off the other.
These days if I have to trap one I just put it down and dispose of it. Like noted above by someone else, buzzards gotta eat too.
These days if I have to trap one I just put it down and dispose of it. Like noted above by someone else, buzzards gotta eat too.
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