Raccoon!

[Reese917]

The dumpster at my appartment is along the woods and everytime I take the trash out I have to throw a rock to scare off the coons. There are usually a couple of real fat and slow ones, they eat well in there.

I won't be able to resist one day and take out the trash with the pellet gun or some subsonics in the .22

 

[yamatitan]

We found 3 babies under a oak tree by my house. The mother must have abounded them because we didnt touch them for a week and they were in the same spot. We brought them in the garage and started feed them milk out of a syringe deal. Then we brought them to LSU who took them. I kinda wish I would have kept one for a pet.

 

[Jed]

We have one here at the shop that comes by for catfood too.
At first I was leary because I had also heard that racoons are nocturnal and if you see them out in daylight they may well be rabid.
Watch out for the swans, if a full grown bats you with his wing there's a good chance you'll be going to the ER for a cast.

 

[my-rifle]

Many years ago when I lived in Austin I had an apartment that backed up to a park, specifically the forrested part of the park. I used to let my cats run outside during the day, and at night I'd take them in for dinner. Every once in a while I'd forget to bring in their bowl of food in the evening, and in the morning it would be empty. I assumed oppossums were the culprits, because you could see them (and hear them) at night shambling through the leaves. One night I woke up, and came into the living room, and saw not an opossum, but a raccoon out there.

Well I decided to start feeding the little bugger, and I moved its feeding time back and back, until it began to come round at 8PM or so. Next I opened the sliding glass door a crack, to get it used to me, and each night I would open it more and more, until finally it was fully open. Once she was accustomed to that I began moving the bowl closer to the door, until finally I brought it inside. I did all these stps so gradually that the raccoon didn't seem to mind it. Since I would generally sit on the floor watching TV in the evenings (ahh those days of youth!), as I moved the bowl more into the house it was moving closer to me.

Finally I moved it to the other side of me, so she would have to cross around me to a very vulnerable spot for a wild animal - with its back to a wall, and its exit blocked. She made the transition though with some trepidation. Next I moved the bowl onto my chest, and laid down, so she would sit on me and eat. Eventually she would eat out of my had (Keep the hand flat! They don't know fingers from food!) and let me pet her and call her inside.

This all took place over a period of months, and next year after the winter when she returned with kits, she was less friendly, but for that time it was a lot of fun having a friendly raccoon. Never turn your back on them though. They're wild, and they react like wild animals do - just faster and more ferociously then most. Too bad they're so cute.