So there was a royal ruckus of a growly nature in the backyard tonight, so hubby and I

[GreenPartyVoter]

stood on the couch and shined a flashlight out the window and we saw a momma raccoon and 4 bebbies!!!

No pics though, sorry. :(

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Someone was evil enough to Unrec a happy little thread about raccoons.

:cry:

[LynneSin]

14. Didn't you know that God kills a baby raccoon everytime a thread is recommend

That unrec was just someone saving the baby raccoons

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. Oh noes!!

[Strong Atheist]

2. Recommended! nt.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Thank you from

little guys who looked just like this!

[Kool Kitty]

4. K and R.

I love animal posts. And animals. Too bad no pics, though.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. I wish I could have gotten some, but they were too far away in the dark. I am going

to have hubby keep his best camera nearby and ready to go, in case they return for another visit. :D

[peekaloo]

5. thread title deserves a rec.

:-)

i'm guessing the negative nellie was protesting the lack of pics.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. That's true. It could have been that. :^)

[Moondog]

8. Agreed. Very cool title.

B-)

[cwydro]

9. "royal ruckus of a growly nature" !

I love it!:rofl:

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Well, I thought if I left out the growly bit people might think my neighbors were

getting in trouble. LOL

[cwydro]

13. I still thought it was your neighbors!

:rofl:

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. LOL Well, at least you didn't think it was hubby and me. Not that I would

report on our being growly in the backyard, or anywhere else for that matter. :rofl:

[cwydro]

18. Lol!

Growly is my new word for the day!:rofl:

There are posts of a growly nature over in GD regarding the new unrec feature...:rofl: :popcorn:

[GreenPartyVoter]

20. GD is always growly. :^P

[Bertha Venation]

10. Giant rats!

I don't really mean that. I love to watch raccoons. Only thing is, they can carry disease. And at night, if we don't put away the feeders, they eat the bird seed that the birds don't finish.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. I was concerned because only minutes before I had seen a cat on the other side of the trailer. And

it is very likely all the noise was momma raccoon telling kitteh to back off when it came around to the backyard.

But since it died down very quickly I think kitteh realized it was up against an army and that retreat was the best course of action.

[Bertha Venation]

17. I hope one of our kittles never decides to attack a raccoon.

Raccoons have awfully thick coats; I imagine they might be impervious to cat teeth & claws. But what do I know? :shrug:

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. We had a 12lb tom who took on a monster raccoon that lived under the neighbor's

barn. Neither one ever won, but they did get banged up pretty good.

[JitterbugPerfume]

21. racoons are the enemy

I have a neighbor who has a non -killing trap and he takes them far far away where they can't get under houses and wreck plumbing, or distroy bird feeders .

[Blue Diadem]

22. I know someone who did that recently. They received quite a surprise.

They trapped and relocated 2 raccoons that had been getting up on the patio by their house. They had no idea that both were momma raccoons. Two days after the relocation, 4 babies came out of a tree close by, on the third day, 3 babies came out of another tree.

It's taken several weeks of bottle feeding and last I heard the babies are off the bottle and enjoying other foods. They plan on caring for them a while longer and will relocate them in late summer/early fall.

[JitterbugPerfume]

23. then I suppose it is good to know

that most animals give birth in the Spring and act accordingly

[Blue Diadem]

25. Yep. I'm not sure what they were thinking. These aren't the first babies they've raised.

The last time, the Momma raccoon was killed by a car and the babies showed up. They're on a small farm and deal with a lot of wildlife. I was surprised they trapped and relocated at the time they did.

[Blue Diadem]

24. Raccoons can really make a lot of noise and be really nasty, but the babies are adorable.

Did you know they make a purring type sound? I didn't know until several weeks ago when someone we know kinda got stuck raising 7 of them after relocating their Moms.


Purring raccoon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K3u6TxQkxg

[JitterbugPerfume]

26. they are adorable

I had a friend who had a pet racoon . It was a really cool animal, but when I moved up here around the lake I found out how much damage they can do to property.

All of natures critters have a right to be here and I would never condone killing , but I support relocation especially when they scatter trash all over the neighborhood.

[Kali]

27. the problem is that relocating is basically a death sentence too.

most humane thing to do is use good exclusion techniques, but I don't have a problem killing rodents and stuff like them that get in. Haven't had a racoon problem although I know they used to be around here. Skunks are the main larger animal "pest" hanging around now.

[Blue Diadem]

29. I've had one bite right through the lid of a plastic garbage can.

Left us the perfect little mouth outline. They can be really destructive and they do carry disease.

I'm with you on the relocation. The only time I condone killing one is if it's terribly sick. I've seen a few of those over the years.

[GreenPartyVoter]

36. We had a huge one at the lodge where I used to work. The housekeepers

kept feeding it. From their hands, no less! (And this was during the day, which I always thought was weird.) One evening I had gotten in to work and opened the door to the rec center where I ran the babysitting program, and this thing charged me. I never expected to find it inside! But unfortunately we had forgotten to empty the trash in the kids' supper room the night before and that was what drew him in. What a lovely mess to clean up!

We spent a week or two shepherding the kids either indoors or out depending on where Mr. Raccoon turned up. Finally it got snagged in a Hav-a-Heart and they took him somewhere else to live.

[Demoiselle]

30. My Kuvasz confronted a baby raccoon in our back yard. And retreated.

A Kuvasz is the Hungarian version of a Great Pyrenees (big, white, sheep-guarding dog, roughly the same size as a St. Bernard.) He was a pretty tough cookie (they're bred to take on wolves and bears if they must), but the raccoon frightened him. It was maybe half-grown, hissing spitting and growling at him from behind a little (cardboard!) box out in the yard. The dog wouldn't go anywhere near the raccoon, just stood about ten yards away and barked hysterically. I came out and leashed the big bold Kuvasz and brought him safely inside. He was relieved, and I assume the baby raccoon moved on to terrorize other large dogs.
So I too have heard the growly ruckus and it is a growly ruckus indeed.

[Blue Diadem]

32. Aww, poor guy. I can picture that.

I don't blame him for not wanting to get involved with a crazy ticked off raccoon. :scared: I bet that was a sight though. :rofl:

[Demoiselle]

33. I have NEVER heard a worse noise from any animal. The baby raccoon from Hell! (eom)

[applegrove]

28. A kitten I had once chased a mother racoon and her babies up a tree. The mother racoon got up about

foot off the ground and then stopped and looked at who was chasing her. LOL!

[GreenPartyVoter]

34. That made me think of

:rofl:

[applegrove]

37. Love it! LOL.

[GreenPartyVoter]

40. Freakin' hysterical, huh? :^D On the other hand, I have been attacked by cats and

have a healthy fear of them myself when they are in a bad mood.

[applegrove]

41. But an angry cat can't kill ya. An angry dog can. I'm rarely afraid of cats. Plus I live

with a cat who can get ornery.

[GreenPartyVoter]

42. True, but a cat can blind you before you know what happened. Not as bad as

getting your throat ripped out, but still bad enough I avoided my cat when she was in a mood over her brother coming back from the Vet and smelling like a stranger. Especially at night when he would try to sleep on my feet while she was sleeping on my head. That was a very scary way to wake up, with a spitfire bouncing around on my scalp. LOL

[applegrove]

43. LOL. She sounds like a hellcat.

[GreenPartyVoter]

44. Only when Pretzel has gone to the vet. All the rest of the time she is sweet as pie. :^D

[maddezmom]

31. Cool

I love critters even noisy ones from inside my house. :) I had a weird experience the other morning though...walked outside to enjoy my coffee before anyone else was up in the house and turned around and a fox was staring at me. I'm not sure who was more surprised. He ran off and I ran inside. :D

[GreenPartyVoter]

35. I knew someone who used to let a baby fox come in their house to eat dog food. Personally,

I thought that was crazy. It would just show up whenever, run into the house, chow down, and then slink off again.

[BreweryYardRat]

38. I've seen baby possums. They are adorable. Are baby raccoons cuter?

On a less "awww" note, you might want to get a Hav-a-Hart trap. Have them vaccinated against rabies and relocate them somewhere else.

Raccoons are cute, but if you let them get settled near your place, your garbage cans won't ever be safe again....

[GreenPartyVoter]

39. I did not see them last night. I am keeping an eye out to see if they

are making their home under the trailer or shed, or if they were just passing through.