Earlier today, my wife and her parents noticed a raccoon walking through our back yard. Later, the ‘coon came back, this time poking around under our deck. This time, I got a look at her (I’ll explain the gender assumption in a moment): she is huge, easily twice the size of our largest cat. I’d speculate that she’s 30 pounds, give or take. And she seemed to have absolutely no fear: I stepped out into the back yard, and she turned around as she walked towards our gate and looked at me before walking off. Our cat Rommel was out in the cat run, and fluffed up/hissed at the raccoon at this point, who completely ignored him.
An hour or so later, Irene’s dad saw the raccoon in our back yard again, carrying a baby (kit), and going underneath our deck. That is why we speculate the adult is a “she”: I’m guessing males don’t parent the babies much.
I’m a little worried about having a creature this large taking up residence in our back yard. Raccoons are smart, and our cats might look a bit too much like dinner. If the raccoon puts her mind to it, she might be able to get into the cat run, and from there into our house. I’ll be watching for signs of entry attempts, but I can’t be watching all the time.
I’ll also see if I can get a picture of her sometime. Irene was talking about putting out water for her: yeah, right, let’s just make her right at home…geez.
Hey a picture would be awesome though I have to agree with you, if she’s that big I suspect she’s doing just fine. Encouraging her to stay with food and water is always bad news with ‘coons. They are aggressive and also a problem in North Vancouver.
A picture of a puffed up cat may also be in order… just for amusing comparison. 🙂
Peace
Not so much that the cats are dinner as competition for food, and of course in this case, a possible threat to her young.
I can’t wait to see what some young curious raccoon paws do to your spa with all those wires and pipes …
Regarding a picture: I’ll keep an eye open, but being ready to snap a picture at all times isn’t in my normal M.O. . I was under the impression that raccoons were mostly nocturnal, but our mama ‘coon was definitely out and about in broad daylight when we all saw her. And as I say, she seemed to be totally ignoring us: it makes me think that something must have messed up her original nesting site. I’m also suspicious that we really only saw her with one kit. Usually they have multiples, so that also makes me think she might have lost some babies. That might disrupt her enough to come out in the day and think of humans as the lesser of two evils.
Regarding wires and pipes under the spa…actually, since it has already suffered from rats (yes, we have rats too…and oppossums…and squirrels), I’m doubtful that the raccoons can make things much worse. Actually, the EFI breaker switched off a week or so ago, and I can’t reset it: since neither Irene nor I have used the spa much this year, I’ve been ignoring the problem. I might just pump the thing out and retire it, since we’ve had quite a few problems with it the last couple of years. It is over 15 years old, so I am thinking it’s time has probably come. The “plan” is to tear the spa area down and build something new with a new theraputic tub (I.E.: [tim allan grunt] more power!]). But that is probably at least a year or two away budget-wise.
What I’d really like is a little robotic camera or something that I could send under the deck and check things out with. That would be neat…or perhaps it would scare the crap out of me, and I’d go out with a hatchet and gasoline and burn the deck to the ground 🙂
It’s called a web cam, a broom handle and duct tape. Or, if you need the excuse to by more toys – a web cam, a remote controled toy dune buggy, and dcut tape.
I await reports of you exploits in the realm of high tech nature photography 😉