BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 09:47 AM

We have indoor cats and outdoor dogs. The cats sometimes catch bugs, but primarily have always been pets. The dogs are pets, but they're working dogs also, in that they are here for protection. Now some would say that you should have the dogs inside to bark if someone comes to the door, but that doesn't work here because the dogs don't get along nicely with the cats, who are much older and set in their ways. And a dog barking inside the house will only alert the burglar, not the rest of the neighborhood. The barking dog outside lets EVERYONE know, in no uncertain terms, if someone is approaching the house. They can't see the entire house, but the house fronts on a busy enough street that hopefully traffic will deter a front entry, along with the wrought-iron security door and the wrought iron window grates. Oh, and by the way, we have a smallish but well-placed sign in the from yard that says "Dog contained by Invisible Fence." Meaning the dogs might just appear out of no where in the front yard or the back.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 09:17 AM

Oh yes, I have done my bit to encourage people to keep their cats indoors, but sadly most of the cats in our neighborhood our semi-feral. 2 of mine are. I merely caught them, fixed them, gave them litterboxes which they use and feed them some. I have one indoor cat I prefer to keep indoors so that she won't do what the feral and semi-feral onces do and shred birds.

Managing a feral cat population is always dicey situation. On the one hand you have people who say they deserve to be free and that to trap and neuter them is cruel. I say it's cruel to let them reproduce, inbreed and go without vet care. Since I moved here we have reduced the feral and semi-feral population by 2/3rds. Just last month I hounded a neighbor as gently as a could to neuter his new male cat whom he allows to roam free. I bought the boy a collar with a bell and a printed name tag and I'm hoping for the best.

We also try every year to post nesting boxes on poles high above where cats can climb and bell every cat we can catch. it isn't always successful. I'd like to do more. i really don't have much pity for the people who lewt their "housecats" out at night and by let, that usually means put them out like fred flinstone and his sabertooth cat. if one of the 2 semi-feral cats I care for gets eaten - oh well. I've tried to make them indoor cats and failing that I have done all I can to prevent them from reproducing or spreading disease.

Good points everyone who brought up the issue of outdoor cats. it really is a problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Becca72
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 02:14 PM

This was included in a newsletter I got over a year ago (the newsletter is unrelated to PETA):


According to PETA's own filings,
in
2004 PETA *killed* 86.3 percent of the animals entrusted to its care
--
a number that's rising, not falling. Meanwhile, the SPCA in PETA's
home
town (Norfolk, Va.) was able to find loving homes for 73 percent of
the
animals put in its care. A shortage of funds? Nope: last year PETA
took
in $29 million in tax-exempt donations. It simply has other
priorities
for the funds, like funding terrorism (yes, really). But don't take
my
word for it: I got my figures from http://www.PETAkillsAnimals.com --
and they have copies of PETA's state and federal filings to back it
up.
The bottom line: if you donate money to PETA because you think they
care for and about animals, you need to think some more. PETA
literally
yells and screams about how others "kill animals" but THIS is how
they
operate? Pathetic.

Subject: RE: BS: Psycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 02:06 PM

In an obliquely related thread, I came across this the other day.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Greg F.
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 12:28 PM

And besides, your neighbors absolutely LOVE cleaning up your cat's and/or dog's shit.

Just ask 'em.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Greg F.
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 12:26 PM

No, no, NO! Let 'em out to roam "free"! Its "cruel" to keep a domescic animal domesticated. The more cats that get eaten by coyotes, foxes, owls, racoons, etc & that get run over & die of preventable diseases the better.

And there's way too many damn songbirds out there anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: leeneia
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 11:28 AM

Re the raccoons that killed 10 cats. That's another reason to keep your cat in your house.

Cats that go outdoors kill valuable birds, they get parasites, get into fights, get hit by cars and are attacked by fiercer animals. Keep your cat in your house.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Peace
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 10:25 AM

" Skeeters charge when they're wounded! "

The rest of the time they pay cash.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 10:20 AM

Ah well you should have bought THIS system for bringing down Big Flying Things:

PRESS

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 09:39 AM

Ha! I never before thought any branch of the military had a sense of humor (that is out there overtly, not the hahaha after stupid mistakes). Paladin = "Have Gun Will Travel." :)

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 04:42 AM

"when another Paladin hit the skeeter with an armor-pierced shell of depleted uranium and shaped explosive -- which bounced off"
Damn good thing it bounced off. Skeeters charge when they're wounded!

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 04:40 AM

Hey. it's 1:30 AM and the torch-waving villagers are out again looking for the Coyote. I told them aout the psycho raccoons and suggested maybe it wasn't a coyote at all ut they're very heavily invested in finding a coyote, any coyote and eating it to a pulp. This all because it et some kitty cats. (and a Yip yip dog and a annoying possum)

I'm beginning to think the cats were all roadkill but the neighbors swear they've seen this monster coyote.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 06:59 PM

I don't have many skeeters up on the hill where I live, but they're here. Oh Boy, are they around here!

The other day the newspaper reported that an 18-wheeler triple-bottom was hijacked by a skeeter that just picked it right up off the highway and flew off with it. Worse, the ID National Guard here is afraid to store their Paladins outside ever since one of them was attacked by a mosquito. It was carrying the thing off, crew and all, when another Paladin hit the skeeter with an armor-pierced shell of depleted uranium and shaped explosive -- which bounced off and hit a chicken coop. Most of the skeeters carry extra tanks for blood, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Peace
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 06:40 PM

'But do you have mosquitos that walk up to you and say "Buzz, motha."'

I can't speak for Rapaire, but here, the last two mosquitoes I heard were having a conversation. One said, "Do you want to eat him here?" and the other replied, "Naw. Let's take it home for the kids."

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 11:26 AM

Well, I got a couple hours sleep and now can work the blickifier again. Amazing how that works. Check it out:

giant coyote

(unfortunately the 'b' on my keyboard sticks and if I hadn't checked I would have referred to it as the 'lickifier' which would have had you all wondering where my mind was today.)


Anyhoo, Hawks, yeah we got them too. They like to eat birds still kicking and screaming on my roof. I kinda liked them eating the mockingbirds until I foolishly became attached to one of the new baby mockingbirds this spring. (it was et by the hawk)

Then my cat attacked the next baby the pair hatched and I spent a month nursing it back to health with ground veal babyfood, draining blood blisters from the injury with a syringe and surgically removing some weird growths around it's eye and on it's toes. That was one effed up little baby mockingird. We named him Quasimoto.

Believe it or not the little bugger made it to adulthood. I kept putting him back in his tree when was learning to fly and one day he just got this "I'm gonna fly or die tryin'" look on his beak and off he went in to the not so wild grey yonder. If he comes back as a young adult I think it will be easy to recognize him since I had to chop off one of mangled his toes so he could land properly and grasp branches.

Before this spring I hated mockingbirds and thanked the hawk for each one he ate on my roof. Now I'm rather attached. They are very determined little birds and the most attentive of parents. My black cat Inky still bears a scar on his head from Quasimoto's mom pecking him to keep him away from her grounded little frankenstein baby. I'm still not sure if Quasimoto thinks me his savior or his personal torquemada for all I did to him. At least he grew up unlike his younger sibling. He also had a cousin to hang with we called Buddy. Buddy flew two weeks earlier but stuck around for Quasimoto. Both families flew off together the day Quasimoto mastered flight.

Happy little story right except for me practicing avian medcine on the baby without his informed consent. Well, it was either that or let the cats rip his wings off. All and all I feel he get the better baargain.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: open mike
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 10:46 AM

yesterday was a particularly wild day for me (as in wild life sightings)
the first thing i saw was a huge bear poop in the driveway, not the critter, just the scat, then a few miles down the road i saw a buck with large rack of antlers eating apples in an orchard. Around the corner from that, a wild turkey crossed the road, then an osprey was perched on its nest around the next bend.

then as i was preheating my oven to bake a black berry cobbler,
i noticed an interesting "fragrance" and found a nest of insulation
(doesn't that itch??!!) in the broiler below my oven...mice's nest
presumably. then the dog brought in a mole she had dug up out of the yard.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Ernest
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 10:35 AM

Catch them alive and sell them as watch-coons or guard-coons and save the taxes the local authorities collect for dogs.

You can take "meaner than a junkyard coon" as a jingle for your advertising campaign.

And send me a percentage of the earnings ;0)

Best
Ernest

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 10:21 AM

Coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and a bobcat have been sighted in our neighborhood. Owls and hawks pretty well round-out the predator ranks. Rats and possums are out there also, eating everything, near as I can tell. If you count my dogs, there are two more. The catahoula caught a mouse in the yard this morning, and last summer she caught a mourning dove. The pit bull has caught a couple of possums and I'm not sure which of them caught the snakes and lizards. I wish they'd leave them alone. As it is, I'm trying to remove the habitat type areas in the yard, moving the piles of rocks outside the back fence so lizards and snakes can live in peace, not in pieces.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Janie
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 10:15 AM

Yeh, Rapaire. But do you have mosquitos that walk up to you and say "Buzz, motha."

Jani

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 08:56 AM

Shucks, we got coyotes. We also got cougars, black bears, moose, elk, mule deer, whitetail deer, antelope, lynx, and a bunch of other critters who sometimes stroll the sidewalks and yards. Like the momma and baby moose who did just that the day before yesterday, or the cougar who "played" with a lady's cats last January (she was going to chase it off, thinking it was a large dog, until she saw the tail and decided to sacrifice her cats instead). We've got eagles to snatch your tiny yapper dog and potato larva which will drag you underground and eat you if you stumble. Worse, there are lotsa politicians and unfortunately they're a protected species.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 07:36 AM

nothing worse than a joke link that doesn't work, huh?

Here's the web addy:
http://www.publicartinla.com/sculptures/coyote.html

The lickifier seems broken. I can't get any links to work from it

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 07:32 AM

Darn I wish we could edit. I must have early morning ADD. here is a reported siting of the East End Ripper:


http://www.publicartinla.com/sculptures/coyote.html
(joke)

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 07:28 AM

>>
Hmm, let's see. It's snaffled six cats and a yappy dog, right? Well me, I'd be making a kennel for it and lavishing it with praise...<<<

And one cantankerous possum nobody much liked cuz it used to raid the garbage cans and snap at our dogs. Yeah, I'm kinda liking the east End Ripper. Now if I can just convince the torch-waving villagers that this is a good addition to the locale...

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Grab
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 07:23 AM

Hmm, let's see. It's snaffled six cats and a yappy dog, right? Well me, I'd be making a kennel for it and lavishing it with praise...

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 06:56 AM

oh one more thing about our Psycho Coyote and then I promise I'll shut up:

The part of West hollwyood that I live in is actually called 'The East End" I know, I know, something inordinately silly about living in the east of of west something or other, right? Anyhow - we call our Coyote the East End Ripper although I have heard some people call it The Pointsetta Ripper since she/he mostly eats cats on Pointsetta.

Anybody want to rework the lyrics to Werewolves of London to fit The Pointsetta Ripper's dark crimes against felines?

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 06:48 AM

I see now I should have expplained for those in the UK or those not familiar with Hollywood that Sunset and Hollywood Blvds are the essential dividing line between the Hollywood hills (were the coyotes roam full time) and the city grids of Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, etc. Only ineriated undead metalheads dare play Frogger on Sunset Blvd in the early hours of the morning. Coyotes havce more sense and wait until 2PM when it's light out and everyone is drinking latte.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 06:40 AM

We have a psycho killer Coyote stalking my neighborhood for about the past 2 months. We believe it's a she and that she has pups. She's made wet red rags out six fat housecats, one yip yip dog and a particularly cantankerous possum nobody misses.

The area she's hunting has a lot of garden sheds and a couple of empty cottages that have been fenced off from the streets so she pretty much has her run of the neighborhood. We don't think she's living full time in our end of west hollywood but she must be overnighting here frequently - it's far too difficult to cross Sunset and Hollywood Blvd in the wee hours. Too many inebriated Zombie metalheads to negotiate. Looks like Shaun of the Dead up there every morning at 4.

I've had chats with my 3 fat cats explaining that they are taking their lives into their own paws if they cross Formosa but still they go...

(My excuse for being awy from mudcat so long this time is that I've been hunting the Pyscho Coyote with a posse of other West Hollwyood folk musicians)

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Peace
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 12:03 AM

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh huh.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Greg F.
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 12:01 AM

Now, if we could just prevent people from leaving food and contributions out for the Republicans.....

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Peace
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 11:55 PM

LOL. It's OK to walk in the woods here, but it's smart to go with a person who runs slower than you do.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Greg F.
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 11:49 PM

Ya don't tell 'im nothin'.

Ya just points ta the buncha tourons in the next SUV or RV down the line ...

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Peace
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 11:19 PM

'like the bears who are fed by tourists'

I live in bear country. Fish and Wildlife has trapped four in the town (blackbears) within the last month and relocated them. We know who the tourists are; they're the ones who want to have themselves in the same snapshot as the bear. What DO ya tell the bear when ya run outta cookies?

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 10:00 PM

Damn straight. Unfortunately, like the bears who are fed by tourists and the dogs dropped off because "the farmers will take care of them" it's the people, not the animals, who are at fault. And it's the animals, not the people, who will die unnecessarily.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Greg F.
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 06:48 PM

Be a more effective long-term solution to shoot the jerks who've been feeding the ("cute")raccoons & thus teaching 'em not to be afraid of humans & that humans mean free food.

The racoons aren't the ones at fault here.

And they have the same if not a greater right to be there than the food pets do.

I say, go raccoons!

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 06:17 PM

Sounds like its time to get creative in driving these critters off. Nice if they can do it without bullets, but someone will probably resort to shooting them.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Greg F.
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 05:58 PM

Send the raccoons here, Quick! Several of the neighbors' food pets I'd be more than happy to see the last of on our property...

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 05:34 PM

Let the little buggers fend for themselves. If you fee 'em, they'll come to think of it as their right.

Oops. I mean, feeding the coons is okay, but children are anohter story.

Subject: RE: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Peace
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 04:46 PM

From the article:

"One goal of the patrol is to get residents to stop feeding raccoons and to keep pets and pet food indoors."

It should have read "One goal of the patrol is to get residents to stop feeding raccoons and to keep food pets and pet food indoors."

Subject: BS: Pycho Killer Raccoons. Yipes!
From: Janie
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 04:43 PM

Pshycho Killer Raccoons in Olympia