Y'know, I'm OFFENDED when a raccoon growls at me in my own kitchen!

[martha]

A few nights ago, I was awakened by loud crunching in my kitchen. The cat was asleep pretty much on my arm, and the dog was sleeping next to the bed. Husband wasn't home. That ruled out anybody who should have been crunching in the dark. I got up, without putting on my glasses, and stumbled out to the kitchen. Mrs. Useful Dog went with me. When I switched on the light, there was nobody there. However, I did hear a strange sound that sounded like a revving engine of a toy. My glasses revealed nothing new, except that the revving toy seemed to be under the pantry. The dog just stood there, wagging. Back to bed.


The next night, I heard the same crunching. Well, I had conferred with the husband, and he had heard the crunching a few nights earlier, but without the revving sound. The crunching was again not caused by any authorized eater, due to sleeping animals and absent husbands. This time, I had my glasses with me. The lights again revealed nothing, but the dog proved more useful; she ran a little towards her dog dish. I called her back because I had figured out (finally) that the revving sound was actually a growl! Sure enough, the growl was much louder this time, and I could see a little raccoon paw sticking out from under the pantry!! I decided to go back to bed.

Well, your Martha wasn't born yesterday! We no longer leave dog and cat food sitting out over night! And eventually, we'll put the flap of the dog door down. No more offensive crunching and growling at night, thanks.

The best part is, we live in an incredibly suburban area, not really anywhere near wildlife!!

Thanks for reading this far. Now go back to work.

 

[The Wanderer]

careful martha, racoons are at an extremely high-risk for contracting rabies

 

[cell]

raccoons are evil. they steal food, mangle the trash cans, tear up your campsite if someone leaves food out overnight...they are a pain in the ass!

 

[Angela Harlem]

That is hilarious Martha!

 

[ABEL]

 

[ghetofabu]

Thanks for my smile of the day Martha.


Hope your dogs (aka feet) are doing well also.

 

[oliveu2cm]

Thanks for my smile of the day Martha.


Hope your dogs (aka feet) are doing well also.

Same here!

and i thought spiders in my apt was bad!

 

[popkidu2]

careful martha, racoons are at an extremely high-risk for contracting rabies

Not completely true Wanderer. During the height of the rabies scare, which was early nineties I believe, racoons, skunks, squirrels; all these animals were decimated by rabies. I didn't see a squirrel for many years around my parents house or smell that wonderful smell of skunk. However, the rabies epidemic seems to have passed (at least in NH), so you're pretty safe around these animals, except skunks of course!

An easy way to tell if an animal is rabid: does it act "strange". Does it seem to walk like a drunk, havea strange look in it's eye, seem confused, even possibly friendly, and is it foaming or drooling at the mouth and making odd vocal sounds.

Case and point: there was a deer (I think it was a deer, might have been a different animal) that was rabid down near my friends house in CT. It was lurching around the road acting all kinds of funny, like it had a bit too much to drink. Cops came and decided the best course of action was to put this animal out of it's misery. They had to shoot this animal more that TEN times before it dies. Absolutely bizzare.

I think your racoon was fine. Growling and munching on cat and dog food is a absolutely normal behavior for a racoon. But I would suggest trying to feed the little sucker. Might not be rabid, but they carry other nasty diseases, and they won't hesitate to bite ya!

On a side note: Racoons actually make wonderful pets if you can get when their little and domesticate them. Very clean animals, very affectionate. Adorable and cute as well.

 

[jezebel]

martha, love your animal stories!

maybe we can get that racoon together with the half-dead mouse I found under a rug this morning (ack! I thought it was one of the cats' fake mice!)

sounds like you have a really good watch dog

 

[ghetofabu]

I did not know any of that. This place can be educational sometimes.

 

[martha]

No half-dead mice here!

Adorable and cute as well.

Unless it's growling at you like Frankenstein!

Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

[oliveu2cm]

But I would suggest trying to feed the little sucker. Might not be rabid, but they carry other nasty diseases, and they won't hesitate to bite ya!

Trying to feed or not feeding?

I wouldn't feed those things- don't want a whole family of the racoons movin' into the pantry!

 

[bono_luvva]

i think they meant not feeding coz otherwise it wouldn't make any sense!!! I love that pic of a racoon...sooooo sweet!!!

 

[joyfulgirl]

Sure enough, the growl was much louder this time, and I could see a little raccoon paw sticking out from under the pantry!! I decided to go back to bed.

hilarious!

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

OMG, that's adorable. I wish we got those in my country!

 

[meegannie]

I love animals

OMG, that's adorable. I wish we got those in my country!

I forgot that there aren't raccoons there!!

By the way, you have the BEST username.

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

Re: I love animals

Ahhh, I love that animal. I want him as a pet...are raccoons friendly?

You know what other animal we should have in my country but don't? Beavers. Beavers rock. I saw them at the zoo in Washington DC when I was on vacation and ever since it's been my life's ambition to have beavers living in my back garden. We only get like...otters or something here...and y'know they don't have the teeth thing, and they're too dumb to build dams. Beavers rock.

 

[joyfulgirl]

Y'know, martha, raccoons actually purr--yes, like cats! Maybe your raccoon was purring and not growling.

 

[Giant Lemon]

That's a great story, martha! I have a raccoon story myself. When I was younger my parents were obsessed with going on family camping trips. One night during one of the trips (I was about 7 years old) we were all asleep in the tent when my dad woke up and heard a scratching sound. Nothing was scratching the tent, though, so he went back to sleep. A little bit later he was woken up again by a banging sound. He couldn't figure out what it was, and it eventually stopped, so he fell back asleep.

Well, the mystery was solved the next morning. A raccoon had clawed its way through the screen on the little pop-up window on the top of our van and jumped inside. Then it ate an entire loaf of bread and hotdog buns and left "special surprises" (aka lots of crap) on the driver's seat and the floor near the gas pedal! The banging noise had been the raccoon trying to jump back out of the window and climb out. Somehow it had managed to make it without knocking itself unconscious first.

 

[martha]

Y'know, martha, raccoons actually purr--yes, like cats! Maybe your raccoon was purring and not growling.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Sure.

Pet the raccoon.

 

[cass]

I had the hots for Fess Parker when i was younger...coonskin hat n all

Me and my best friend Lillian
And her blue tick hound dog Gideon.
sitting on the front porch
cooling in the shade
singing every song that radio played
Waiting for the Alabama sun to go down.....
Emmylou Harris Red Dirt Girl.

I that song. I bought a beautiful dog boook a couple of weeks ago for my friend's birthday. I got to see a blue tick hound dog at last.....it was baying up a tree.

We have lotsa things that go bump and scratch and rustle and chew and mate (you should read about Australian antechinus...sex maniacs...in my roof!!) and generally have a good time in the night here.
A friend of mine here has Lyme's disease, somethig I had thought hadn't made it's way to oz...but it has now.Rabies sounds scary.

But racoons look so cute. i like their spectacles.

furry creatures

 

[U2Bama]

Emmylou Harris is from my hometown. "Red Dirt Girl" is a great song. I saw her on the "O Brother Where Art Thou/Down From The Mountain" Tour last month. As a local tribute, she did "Boulder to Birmingham"

I often see deceased racoons, possums and armadillos on the side of the road on my way to work. We found a dead deer the other day.

Poopkid:

HOW could you mistake a deer from something else? What else could it have been? A Centaur?

~U2Alabama

 

[popkidu2]

Poopkid:

HOW could you mistake a deer from something else? What else could it have been? A Centaur?

~U2Alabama

U2Bumma:

I didn't mistake a deer for something else. I couldn't remember the exact animal...if you read my post, you would notice that I was relating a story that someone else told me.

punk.

 

[U2Bama]

Oh.

 

[BAW]

Growling racoons? In Orange County?

Where the hell did it come from? The hissing opossums are bad enough, now racoons!

 

[martha]

Well, we have a ditch by our house, with lots of trees and stuff. People in the neighborhood have fruit trees, and then there are those who leave the flaps to their dog doors open and have dog food sitting out at night.

 

[popkidu2]

Oh.

I think that's the most succint reply I've ever seen from you

 

[doctorwho]

Emmylou Harris is from my hometown. "Red Dirt Girl" is a great song. I saw her on the "O Brother Where Art Thou/Down From The Mountain" Tour last month. As a local tribute, she did "Boulder to Birmingham"


Poopkid:

HOW could you mistake a deer from something else? What else could it have been? A Centaur?

~U2Alabama

Bama:

My condolences for you having to sit through the obvious torture of anything related to the "Brother" soundtrack.

Loved the second part.
"Is that a deer... no... wait, it's a centaur! Of course!"