William
01-22-2009, 03:42 PM
My Raccoon story
I was waiting for my children to get home on their respective buses a little while ago and decided to do a few things in the yard before they arrived. We still have have about a foot+ of snow on the ground and I wanted to get a few things dug up and put away. Both buses pulled up a short time later and I let them into the house and decided that I was going to get the hose into the cellar before I came back in. As I'm closing the cellar door I hear a car going by real slow and look over to see a big Raccoon ambling real slow down the middle of the road. I angled around the driveway watching him but keeping my distance. He started to come up the drive so I started barking and clapping my hands....and he kept coming. After going about twenty feet or so he stopped, stumbled back, turned back down the drive and into the street. He stumbled down about 50 feet or so before he turned down the embankment and into a stream where he sat for about five minutes in the freezing water.
At this point I decided to call the local police since there was a rabid Raccoon that attacked a Husky last week in the town...the Husky killed it. For the next 20 minutes or so I kept an eye on him while he stumbled around, tried climbing, and then falling out of trees. He finally managed to get about twenty five feet up a tree (almost falling numerous times) by the time the officer showed up. I pointed out where he was and explained the situation and what had transpired so far. The officer went back to his cruiser and grabbed his shot gun and walked into the woods looking for a good angle. It's pretty overgrown in that area but he managed to get set up by the time the Raccoon fell out of the tree again. Suffice to say, two shots and it was over. He came back out to his car to get a bag and gloves to remove to critter. I thanked him and that was that.
When I went into the house my daughter was crying for the Raccoon, sad that he was dead. I sat down with her and explained that it was sad and why the officer had to do what he did. He seemed to understand, but now she wants a plush Raccoon toy to be nice to.
Honestly it bothers me a bit since my kids play out on our property all the time. Especially since the snow is on the ground. We've explained to them what to do if you see a fox or raccoon coming toward you, but if they're playing the way kids do they may not notice. We'll just have to be extra vigilant, especially since we saw a fox last week just walking down another road in broad daylight oblivious to the cars.
William
I was waiting for my children to get home on their respective buses a little while ago and decided to do a few things in the yard before they arrived. We still have have about a foot+ of snow on the ground and I wanted to get a few things dug up and put away. Both buses pulled up a short time later and I let them into the house and decided that I was going to get the hose into the cellar before I came back in. As I'm closing the cellar door I hear a car going by real slow and look over to see a big Raccoon ambling real slow down the middle of the road. I angled around the driveway watching him but keeping my distance. He started to come up the drive so I started barking and clapping my hands....and he kept coming. After going about twenty feet or so he stopped, stumbled back, turned back down the drive and into the street. He stumbled down about 50 feet or so before he turned down the embankment and into a stream where he sat for about five minutes in the freezing water.
At this point I decided to call the local police since there was a rabid Raccoon that attacked a Husky last week in the town...the Husky killed it. For the next 20 minutes or so I kept an eye on him while he stumbled around, tried climbing, and then falling out of trees. He finally managed to get about twenty five feet up a tree (almost falling numerous times) by the time the officer showed up. I pointed out where he was and explained the situation and what had transpired so far. The officer went back to his cruiser and grabbed his shot gun and walked into the woods looking for a good angle. It's pretty overgrown in that area but he managed to get set up by the time the Raccoon fell out of the tree again. Suffice to say, two shots and it was over. He came back out to his car to get a bag and gloves to remove to critter. I thanked him and that was that.
When I went into the house my daughter was crying for the Raccoon, sad that he was dead. I sat down with her and explained that it was sad and why the officer had to do what he did. He seemed to understand, but now she wants a plush Raccoon toy to be nice to.
Honestly it bothers me a bit since my kids play out on our property all the time. Especially since the snow is on the ground. We've explained to them what to do if you see a fox or raccoon coming toward you, but if they're playing the way kids do they may not notice. We'll just have to be extra vigilant, especially since we saw a fox last week just walking down another road in broad daylight oblivious to the cars.
William