Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Getting down with the raccoons

This summer we had a bumper crop of raccoons: Two moms, one with five babies and the other with two.

Two weeks ago, while we were on vacation, our catsitter reported seeing the five young raccoons sitting on our patio.

Tonite I followed Kaylee, our small tabby, to the back door and saw a young coon coming up the back porch. It hesitated when it saw me in the kitchen. Then I did what I do when I'm approaching a timid cat: I got down on my hands and knees.

Seeing me shrink down to its level certainly reassured the raccoon, which came right up to top step and peered at me. A moment later, it was joined by a sibling. They seemed to be doing little bows or push-ups on the top step. Then they went away.

1 comment:

  1. Not necessarily the wisest thing to do.

    My step-sisters cat got rabies from being bitten by a raccoon near Greenlake and she was told by her vet that many of the local raccoons are infected. This includes some of the babies.

    A couple of the signs of infection in raccoons are a loss of fear of other animals (including humans) and involuntary bouncing or bobbing movements.

    FWIW, I'd keep my cats (and myself) away from them if I was you.

    ReplyDelete