Footprints

[james_davis_nicoll]

When I left the place where I am feeding some cats to catch a bus at 6 PM, there was a thin layer of fresh snow. I noticed as I walked along that there were foot prints in the snow, fresh foot prints, clearly from a raccoon. In fact, they were so fresh that four of them still had a raccoon foot in them. The feet were connected to a raccoon that was in process of sharpening its claws on the post on someone's front porch and it looked it had been caught doing something that it was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to do. We contemplated each other for a while but decided to leave our acquaintance at that. I went to catch my bus and when I last saw it, it was strolling down the side-walk in the other direction.

Comments

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

I once heard a noise on my roof at night, and went out with a flashlight to investigate. I discovered a raccoon strolling across my garage roof; when I spotlighted him with the flashlight, he gave me this look as though to say, "Do you mind? I'm working here!"

[dragovianknight.livejournal.com]

it looked it had been caught doing something that it was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to do.

Is that the same look cats get?

[velochicdunord.livejournal.com]

It's better than the "piss off asshat" reaction I got from the one that decided to move onto my balcony last year.*

*Which prompted a rapid balcony clean-up and removal of cover.

[von-krag.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed at the wildlife sign I see here in DT Minneapolis. The best I've seen so far in '08 is kill sign in the side yard of a rabbit by a owl. Big bird too, the brush marks of the wings were about 20 inches.

[(Anonymous)]

One summer evening I was enjoying a gin and tonic in the backyard when I saw a little nose poking out through the half-opened back door of the garage. "Awww...c'mere kitty," I said to it, and got up to take a closer look, when a raccoon the size of a young Labrador retriever ambled out, climbed over the fence, and disappeared down the alleyway.

Soon I'm going to write a guide for foreigners entitled Canada: Our Wildlife Will Fuck Your Shit Up.

tlönista

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

That's the same look I usually got from the raccoons that took over the garbage dumpster in my condo complex when I lived in Malden. The dumpster had a convenient sliding side door that was made of light plastic, and the raccoons found it trivial to open, which made the side door effectively unusable because there was always a raccoon rooting around in there. The management seemed to think that telling people to close the door in the fence would somehow keep them out. Eventually, the dumpster got replaced with one that had a heavy metal door on the side that took a lot of force to open, and that seemed to work better.

[liabrown]

I hardly ever see raccoons here in Waterloo, which is odd because I grew up in Toronto and they're everywhere there (at least in my old neighbourhood, where they are kings).

[pip-r-lagenta.livejournal.com]

Raccoons make regular use of our cat door: http://youtube.com/watch?v=8Heh9Pwfx9k
Other non-cats make use of the cat door as well:
http://home.comcast.net/~galentripp/PipPhotoPage_1.html#L285
No matter how much cat food I put down at night, it is aways gone in the morning. Last summer, during the day time, when the back doer was open, a large black crow-like bird walked in and ate some cat food. I must have the best cat food.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I haven't used them, but there are electromagnetic pet doors that only open for an animal wearing a magnet on its collar. A few years ago, I remember seeing a web page about some geek who turned one of these into a far more elaborate version that used a trainable artificial vision system and could even keep his cat out when she tried to carry prey into the house.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I have had as many as seven or eight raccoons on my back deck at my last place when I was stupid and left cat food out at night. The cats loved it better than TV (they were safely on the inside of the sliding glass door).

It's the only way I've been able to be less than six inches from a skunk, too.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

All of our dumpsters have the plastic sliding door and I haven't seen any raccoons there. I know we have them down in the creek -- maybe they get enough food there. The cardboard recycling dumpsters at Public Works have the heavy metal doors and sometimes I can't open them.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

That would be Flo Control. I first read about this years ago so I wonder if their setup is more sophisticated now.

[chuk-g.livejournal.com]

Here in Vancouver and suburbs, there are TONS of raccoons -- I've only seen two skunks (live ones, anyway). Once my wife and I turned the corner and there was one a meter or two away from us, so close we could hear its claws on the pavement.

Up at SFU, sometimes we see a family of raccoons (like 2 large, 3 small) waiting for the bus. Once I saw four of them kind of ambling away from my general direction. I tossed a food wrapper in a nearby garbage can, and after a brief rustle it came back up on a fifth raccoon's head.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm in western Washington state (about an hour south of Seattle) so we're in the same region for the purpose of wildlife sighting.

No wonder we're seeing the same kinds of animals [g].

BTW, did the raccoons' bus ever arrive???

[pip-r-lagenta.livejournal.com]

I have thought about various methods to limit cat food access to only cats, but if I were successful, where would I get my YouTube material?

Raccoons come in every night. But night before last, the skunk came in again. I had not seen her since last summer. I was in the bathroom at the time. The cat food is just outside the bathroom door. I heard the cat door, and I peeked out to see the skunk walk by. I decided to stay in the bathroom for fear of startling the skunk. Nothing good happens when you startle a skunk. The skunk only ate for about two minutes before it scampered. I have my camera ready for her return.

[(Anonymous)]

There's all kinds of interesting wildlife within North American cities. In addition to the usual raccoons and oppossums, Philadelphia has hawks and peregrin falcons (including falcons that live on top of the Verizon building, one of the city's tallest skyscrapers, and on City Hall). We had a bald eagle on an island in the Delaware River where somebody wanted to build a refinery. We also have lots of deer within the city limits-- of course, New York City does too (on Staten Island). Los Angeles has coyotes (and they have to close schoolyards when one is sighted nearby).