Sunday, September 11, 2016

Masked Bandits!!!

I've always had a bit of an irrational fear of "bad guys" coming to get me in the middle of the night.


So when I was awakened by a strange sound at about 3am last night, I had to get up and investigate.


I dragged myself out of bed and staggered down the hall, where I found Jasper crouched in the corner making horrible yowling noises, and Smoky behind the curtain growling at something out on the deck.

So I flipped on the light, fully expecting to see the neighbor's orange tabby, or some other creature of the feline persuasion...

Imagine my surprise when I pulled back the curtain and found a masked bandit staring me in the face!!!


Anyhow, there were three of the little fellows, and I caught them red handed chowing down on the remains of the birdseed that my feathered friends hadn't completely polished off earlier in the day (note the seed stuck to the little guy's nose in the above photo.)


OMG... are they not the cutest things you've ever seen?

Unfortunately, raccoons can be quite aggressive and destructive - plus they can carry rabies, so it's probably not a great idea to encourage further visits. I think from now on I'll have to make an effort to clean up any remaining bird/squirrel food before nightfall, so as not to attract them back.

But it sure was fun having a visit last night!


So tell me, what sorts of furry visitors do you get where you live?



28 comments :

  1. Possums. Oh I hate possums! On the roof, in the
    garden eating all my plants! They're protected so
    we can't do anything (unlike in New Zealand where
    it's open season on them). I remember raccoons going
    through our garbage when I was a kid. Possums are
    the Australian raccoon!

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    1. OK, I had to go look up possums to see if they're different from opossums, which we have in the US, and in fact they are. Of course, we don't have either one here in Colorado. They are pretty cute with those big ears... though I'm sure they can be a nuisance!

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  2. I occasionally come across hedgehogs nearby (though not that many as they are not doing well in the UK) and I have seen a squirrel on the bird feeder... I think we have the occasional fox but I have never seen one...

    Raccoons are cute!

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    1. Hedgehogs! Don't people keep them as pets? They're very cute.

      We have LOTS of foxes - I've seen them in the yard on occasion, and we come across them on the bike path all the time. They're pretty cute too.

      The other day somebody in my neighborhood group posted a picture of a "lost dog" running loose. Yup, it was a coyote. Good thing they didn't try too hard to catch it! Had me a good chuckle on that one!

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  3. Raccoons are very smart. For example, my bother-in-law had problems with raccoons getting in his hen house and killing hens. He could not figure out for the life of him how the raccoon was getting in. One night he kept watch and the raccoon had found a shingle that was loose. He moved it aside and went inside. When the raccoon came out he put the shingle back in place and it the roof looked like he had never been there. Inside was another story.

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    1. Ha! Now that is clever! I didn't realize that raccoons were hunters - I thought they just scavenged. I guess that's another reason not to attract them. Of course they're everywhere here. They travel in the storm sewers, and when you're driving at night you'll often see glowing little eyes peeking out from the drains.

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    2. This was interesting: http://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/raccoons-hands

      I confess I have no great love for raccoons, woodchucks, or opossums. But raccoons ARE cute. We had a funny experience a few years ago (well, NOW it's funny ...). We were camping and a thunderstorm came up. My daughter, at the time, was deathly afraid of thunderstorms, so we were trying to pick up all of the campsite items we didn't want to get wet and get the kids settled in the tent. It was getting to be nighttime, so we all went to bed. In the middle of the night, Mother Nature called to me, so I went out to find the restroom. Oops! In our haste, we forgot to put away the cooler. Yes, we know better than to leave a cooler out, but we goofed. A raccoon had opened it and scattered our food hither and yon. And what food items did that critter take? Well, it left alone the healthy veggies and fruits, but much of the hamburger was consumed, and it left NO chocolate bars--our s'more supply--and left only the cupcake liners from my chocolate chip muffins. My conclusion was that raccoons choose their food the same way humans do--based more on taste than on nutritional value. ;)

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    3. Ha! That's a wonderful article. I think it's hilarious that raccoons are junk food junkies just like people are! And in terms of messing up and leaving the cooler out - well, just be thankful it was a raccoon and not a bear!

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  4. We get deer, armadillos, coyotes, pigs and possums, plus occasional foxes and bobcats. The coyotes, foxes, and bobcats don't come too close to the house because of our dogs. There are raccoons around, too, but I rarely see anything of them except their footprints. Personally, I like possums. They come up on the porch to check out the cat food bowls. They're not aggressive and seem content to mind their own business. And the young ones are extremely cute.

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    1. Pigs? As in wild pigs? When I think "pig," I think cute... but if you mean wild boars... well that's another story altogether! Anyhow, during periods when I've been feeding feral cats we had many more visits from wildlife. Apparently everything likes cat food!

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    2. Yes, wild pigs. I haven't run into any boars, thank goodness, and the other pigs run from me as fast as I run from them. I carry a can of bear repellant whenever I walk in the woods. Cat food, yes! My brother lives in a nice residential area and used to put out cat food in the evenings for a family of foxes that always came through his backyard just after dark. He would leave on the outside light but turn off his kitchen lights and have a perfect view of them while they ate.

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    3. I've never even heard of such a thing as wild pigs - you learn something new every day! :-)

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  5. We get deer, raccoons and the groundhogs that live under the neighbor's shed. Plus a lot of visiting cats off course. Once the boyfriend heard a commotion outside at night and opened the door a crack to see what it was and my old little too-brave-for-his-good cat Mikko ran out and jumped on it before we even realized it was a raccoon. Luckily it scared the raccoon as badly as it scared us and he ran off. I'm always amazed at the wildlife we get being smack dab in the city!

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    1. Oh my goodness! Good thing Mikko wasn't hurt. I'm sure if I had opened the door Smoky would have gone running out there. Well, he was acting like he would - in reality though, he might have tucked his tail and run! :-)

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  6. We've started having skunks nearby. Even when they don't "attack" anybody, they occasionally emit a smell so bad that we have to close our windows at night. (Since we don't have air conditioning, opening windows at night is the primary way we cool our home -- so the skunks are messing up our "air conditioning"!)

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    1. Skunks... OY! We have plenty of them in our neighborhood as well. Don't get quite so many visits now that I'm not feeding any feral cats - but when I was I had to be religious about cleaning up the cat food and not leaving it out after dark. And I totally agree - it sucks to have to shut the windows, but oh, the smell... it's just terrible!

      I heard a horror story once about a woman who had a doggie door and somehow a skunk got inside her house. Apparently she inadvertantly spooked it and it sprayed everywhere! The story was that she actually had to move out while they removed the carpet, furniture and even some drywall and flooring! If that doesn't scare you away from having a doggie door, nothing will! :-)

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  7. Oh - they are so adorable!! I'm impressed you managed to get a photo. Are they fairly used to people and not likely to scamper away? Or just very engrossed in their birdseed!!

    We get possums, as some of your other commenters have said. But this week we had a new one: terrible clattering and scratching in the canopy rangehood in the kitchen.

    We called the landlord, who got up on the roof. Turns out we have had some birds decide to start a spring nest in the rangehood! They seem to fly out when we're cooking (with many squawks) but they come clattering back down later on!

    I wish we had squirrels in Australia. Sooo cute!

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    1. You know, they didn't seem very concerned about me - the photos were all taken through the sliding glass door. But they were much more interested in the cats. The only way I could actually get them to look at me for the picture was when Smoky was sitting next to me! Don't know what that means and/or if that posture is actually a sign of aggression. But the sound that woke me up was the sound of bumping and banging, so I'm guessing either Smoky lunged at the glass door or one of the raccoons did!

      Birds nesting in the rangehood - that doesn't sound good! I'd be worried about starting a fire!

      And I totally love the squirrels because they're sooo cute, but many folks around here have a decidedly different opinion on that one. "Rats with tails" is the common phrase used by the squirrel haters.

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  8. I totally agree with you that raccoons are adorably cute. I know they can be mean and carry rabies so I am not looking to make any raccoon friends but I can ooh and ahhh from afar.

    I haven't had any encounters with raccoons around my home but you are right about people being divided on the "cuteness" of squirrels. I have one neighbor setting traps and another neighbor trying to protect them. I am remaining neutral. I love to watch them in my yard because they are cute but shoo them away if they are digging up bulbs or being bad squirrels.

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    1. You know, I've found that since I started feeding the squirrels, they are much less apt to get into my garden or bulbs. Apparently peanuts, sunflower seeds and popcorn are much more appetizing than tomatoes & daffodil bulbs!

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    2. Around here, it depends on the kind of squirrel. I like the bigger varieties (maybe they are a breed? I dunno ... ) like gray squirrels, but the little red squirrels can be destructive.

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    3. Interesting. I'm no expert on squirrels, but I believe the variety we have here are Fox squirrels - they're light brown in color, and very cute!

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  9. Ah visiting animals, let me count the ways! A raccoon that stood up on the screened-in door in the kitchen to sniff out what's cooking, possums hanging out on the back porch at night sniffing at my jack-o-lantern, deer in the front yard or running around the side of the house, coyotes in the field across the street scaring the stink out of us what with their howling and stalking, squirrels and chipmunks aplenty until the hawks moved into the neighborhood, and copperhead snakes in the garage! What a zoo! And it's the 'burbs of a metro with 4 million. There's a great PBS Nature show on raccoons living in urban and suburban settings - they have us humans figured out!

    Off topic: do you know where Eco Grandma is? I miss her blog.

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    1. Wait... snakes in the garage?!? That would totally freak me out! I do think it's amazing how much wildlife we have in urban areas these days. Every year we get a bear or two that wanders into town. Those stories make me sad though, because often it ends poorly for the bear.

      Anyhow, Lois is over at:
      https://livingindenim.wordpress.com/

      She blogs much less frequently than she used to, but she's still there doing all of her amazing things!

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    2. It was a weird for snakes that year. It had rained a lot, and they started popping up all over! Here in the SE, they say that you are most likely to get bitten in the PM by these fellas. Venomous, yuck!

      Thanks for the info on Lois!

      Oh, and I forgot to say... I love the way the bird seed is snorkeled into that raccoon's nose!

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    3. We don't get many snakes, mostly just garters and bull snakes, though occasionally someone stumbles upon a rattler within city limits.

      But yesterday CatMan and I were riding our bikes when all of a sudden a hawk swooped down, grabbed a snake out of the field next to us and flew off with it in it's talons! Not sure what kind of snake (or hawk) it was, but the display was pretty amazing!

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  10. I love seeing raccoons they look so cute you want to cuddle up to them, but I know better. There isn't as much wild life here as the last place I lived but I till have plenty. Deer, groundhogs, opossums, and yes coons. My son has wild turkey that wander through their yard but I haven't seen one here yet. Today I stained my ramps and since I'm dog sitting figured I could put the dog out the other door, the one without access for me into the yard yet. Wouldn't you know it as soon as she went out I heard a blood curdling yelp then she went nuts barking. All I could picture was her tangling with a raccoon and I'd have to get her to a vet. How was I going to do that. Luckily she was on a chain and when I finally got her inside she was fine. Usually, I walk her out before putting her in her kennel for the night. Guess I won't let her out alone again.

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    1. Yikes! Glad she's OK. You know, when I first moved into this house I decided that maybe I'd let my cat explore the outdoors since I now had a yard. I figured hey, the yard is fenced... I'll be standing right there... what could possibly go wrong? Then the dog next door barked and my cat was a block away before I caught up to her. That was it - I've never let a cat set paw outside since! I just don't have the stomach to handle that sort of stress! :-)

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