Thursday, August 09, 2007

Scourge of the City


This photo just taken from the stairs leading up to my third floor office, looking out the window to the roof of the next house.

Have I mentioned how much I hate racoons? Sure, they look cute, but wait until you have them living (and crapping) under your back deck. Then tell me how cute they are. (At least I don't have them living in my roof, like my brother and sister-in-law do. The other half of their semi-detached is being renovated right now and the builders keep leaving holes for them to get back in.)

Eileen Cook has a hilarious post about squirrels today. Got me wondering what this racoon is up to!

10 comments:

Sara Hantz said...

Yikes!!! We have possums but I've only ever seen them dead on the road in the countryside.

Unknown said...

Thankfully, I haven't seen any racoons where I live yet. Lots of crows and chipmunks though. My poor house cat is being driven insane. :)

L.A. Mitchell said...

He looks guilty, doesn't he? Totally busted. He's actually sniffing around outside your office to find out if you have your manuscript sent off :)

Anonymous said...

OMG. I totally identify.
I'm not sure which (who?) I despise most - the demented squirrels or the garbage destroying/dog food eating racoons that live in my backyard.
The squirrels once made a nest in my still warm van engine overnight. When the car didn't seem to have any zip I took it in and my mechanic (trying not to laugh) said he found an old evergreen bough and chewed ignition wires that ended up costing me almost 1,000 dollars to fix.
The racoons have made it into my back porch to tip over my dog's food container more times than I can count. The other day I opened the back door, my dog leaps over the top step - where a racoon is still sitting, now frozen with terror over my dog's frenzied barking. Seems it was a young racoon who didn't get back to the nest on time and was hoping he could somehow still get some dog food for breakfast.
I feel for your racoon issues, Maureen.

Erica Ridley said...

Wow, great photo!

No raccoons here so far (*knocks on wood*) although I've had a hellacious squirrel problem. They seem to think the bird feeder is for them, and regardless of what kind I buy (even the anti-squirrel kind!) or where/how I hang it, they find a way (including taking running leaps from trees/fences and risking life and limb) to gobble all the birdseed before the birds even figure out where I've placed the latest birdfeeder.

/sigh

Best of luck with your raccoons! =)

bevrosenbaum said...

Ugh, we have them in our backyard all the time. I even see them in broad daylight, climbing up trees! (Um, aren't they supposed to be nocturnal??) We got these great 'racoon proofer' things at the hardware store, for our garbage cans, that really work! So no more messes--yay! And we've had our eavestrough kitted out with some wire meshy thing they can't get into. Don't mind that they're around if they don't make messes and we don't hear them clawing around...

Elizabeth Kerri Mahon said...

We had raccoons in our house upstate who totally ruined our attic (not to mention took $$$ of the asking price). I just watched the video of Grey Gardens where Little Edie Bouvier Beale feeds two raccoons who live in her attic. Clearly indicating that she and her mother were totally nuts!

Maureen McGowan said...

People who feed raccoons are clearly insane. They do quite well.

People who feed pigeons make me crazy, too. If there weren't ample food for these creatures in cities already, they wouldn't be here!!! Let's purposefully leave stuff out for the rats, and roaches, too.

Amy Ruttan said...

Um ya, I know they're cute but very nuisance like. My Nanny lived on Main and Danforth and she had tons of problems with coons and skunks.

Here in NodNol (London) we have problems with rabbits and apparently cougars. Rabbits constantly dig holes in my backyard and eat everything and we have skunks too. They fight in our backyard with cats. Nothing like running to the window in the middle of the night because of a skunk fight, and they make a god awful sounds.

Anonymous said...

You know they can read. Now you've just made him mad.

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