BS: What the Cat dragged home

Subject: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: olddude
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 12:43 PM

Well since the spring I saw this baby raccoon following around my old cat. Now I go out at night sit on my porch and the no longer a baby raccoon is laying next to my cat and she is grooming it. They eat out of the same cat dish ... OMG ..

The raccoon turned in to a pretty big guy, I toss him a dog biscuit and he begs for more. I finally had my kid (in vet school) get me some oral vaccine for rabies and gave it to the critter in a hot dog just to make sure he stays healthy. My cat thinks it is her kitten, every night the two of them are together ..laying next to each other, the raccoon brushes his head against the cats head ...

Same cat that made friends with a skunk a few years ago ..

insane cat

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 12:47 PM

Hey, better the cat brings it's friends home, than it goes out with unsuitable friends you haven't met!

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Janie
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 01:19 PM

would love to see that, Dan. Pics to post?

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: pdq
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 01:21 PM

When I was a kid, the family was camping in a state park in California which had quite a few racoons that were used to getting goodies from the tourists.

They are clean animals and often wash their food in a creek if they can.

I took a few sugar cubes from the family food storage and placed then near the creek.

A large racoon soon came up and took one back to the washed it.

It looked a bit puzzled when when his little food treasue dissapeared.

He took another sugar cube back to the creek and the same thing happened.

Third try he grabbed a suger cube where it sat and ate it with a vengeance.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 01:25 PM

Never "met" a raccoon but it sounds nice.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 01:39 PM

At my old home, Lizzie used to babysit the local groundhog's babies whlie Momma took a break, Somewhere I have pictures. Lizzie got really nasty if any other cat came to investigate her charges.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: olddude
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 01:45 PM

Janie
I will get a pic tonight, every night he lumbers down the oak tree and heads for the porch ... it has gotten to the point that If I don't put his cat food out he pounds on the screen door till I go out. He and my cat always together at dusk. Now if I go away I have to make sure the neighbors feed my raccoon ... Gosh I am such a sucker

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: gnu
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 01:47 PM

As a lad, I was taught to terminate them with extreme predjudice on sight. Well, those are not the exact words my father used but that was the gist of it. His version included "fuckin rats with masks".

I have, at best guesses, a skunk, coon or fox ripping up my small plot of carrots in search of, at best guess, grubs. Of course, in the city I have to use a live trap... but what if it's a skunk. What do I do if I get a skunk in the trap?

I am reminded of an episode of the TV show Wingfield in which he uses a syringe to inject eggs with a tranquilizer he gets from the vet to catch a skunk... hilarious.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: olddude
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 01:52 PM

Gnu
Yup my dad use to eat em ... probably back home they still do LOL
Now I get stuck with em as pets LOL

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: olddude
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 02:13 PM

John
You are so correct LOL ... yup better my cats doesn't bring any of my farmer friend home. Swear to God a true story ...

I visited my grape farmer buddie and he was complaining his front tooth was infected. I said go to the dentist. I catch up with him a few days later and his tooth is gone. He says, well the dentist wanted 150 bucks so I got a wooden dowel rod and bang it with a hammer and knocked it out.

In shock I said, did it hurt, he says brought tears to my eyes but it worked ... My friends range from all walks of life ... LOL

Insane friends ... absolutely insane

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: gnu
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 02:20 PM

Yer dad ate coons? I wouldn't eat a meat eater. Well, unless it was farmed proper like pigs.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: olddude
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 02:24 PM

Yup, so did a lot of people back home ... and a tasty thing it is not GNU
terrible ... However back in the mountains rabies was non existent and back then meat was meat

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 02:34 PM

Love it Dan! Wish I had one but my cats all bring in dead stuff except for the occasional bird which we sometimes manage to save. It could be worse though......and one time it was.

Karen woke up one night to a smell so bad it had been invading her dream. There had been something or another in her dream that smelled really bad and she awoke to find the smell was quite real. She was also able to make out the form of one of our Weims, Jaeger, standing on the bed over her. She reached across and switched on the light and realized that Jaeger had brought her a little bunny........a dead little bunny.......a dead and moldering little bunny.......and he was so happy!

Karen's main thought was to get 75 pounds of Weimaraner with dead rabbit out of the bed before he delivered his "present" to his favorite lady.   Fortunately she did.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 05:28 PM

Mudcatter Dorothy Parshall is a great raccoon advocate. She'll be as pleased as I am to hear of this, Dan...your initial post, not the stuff about eating them...ugh.

Great cat, I'd say! And good for you for treating them well.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: olddude
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 06:39 PM

Kat
I can't and wouldn't hurt anything anymore. Maybe when I was a hunter, Now I just look at critters and smile

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: olddude
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 07:09 PM

by the way, they like cat food better than dog food, especially dad's variety ... that is his favorite. Oh he will eat dog food but gives me dirty looks

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Bobert
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 07:25 PM

I had a good friend in the 70s who started feeding one on his back porch and next thing ya' know the sumabich was wandering in this guys house... Very disconcerting 'cause the rat-coon would climb up you, get in yer lap, mess with stuff in your pockets and you couldn't really pick it up and set it down 'cause it would get all hissy... Only way to get it off you was to stand up and then it would climb down...

BTW, rat-coons when they pissed can hurt you or yer pets purdy bad...

Only wild mammal-animal (always had snakes and turtles) I had as a kid was a squirrel I raised from a little guy (3 inches long)... He lived in my bedroom in a bird cage (door always open) and had free run of the house... But he was 100% tame...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: olddude
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 07:37 PM

For sure bobster, My cousin had a "Pet" raccoon that he found as an baby orphan ... kept it in his house, it would trash the place when it got older ... wild animals should remain wild. It is not a good idea to do what I am doing ... not at all .. but it is fun and I know better than to feed him ... but I do it

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 07:52 PM

My friend in Mystic, CT, lived in town on a well-settled street. Had a cat flap which her cats used daily and nightly. For some mysterious reason she noticed they were suddenly eating a lot of dry cat food, esp. at night when she was asleep. She'd get up in the morning and find they'd been in the cupboard and made a mess whilst helping themselves.

Well, that's what she thought until one night she happened to get up, heard rustling in the kitchen and looked through to see a raccoon happily pillaging the cat food bag. Not only that, when she turned the light on, it made a beeline for the "raccoon flap" exiting the house. No more unlocked cat flap at night after that!

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Bobert
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 08:30 PM

Lots of people feed rat-coons, oldster, and I think that's it perfectly okay to do so as long as you continue to do it when the snow sets in... I wouldn't want to feed a bunch of them, mind you 'cause a bunch turns into a bunch-plus and a bunch turns into a bunch-plus-plus and so on...

Feedin' one or two rat-coons is as American as apple pie...

There might come a time tho when kittie doesn't need to be around at feeding time but cats and rat-coons do seem to have a good sense of mutual respect...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: olddude
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 11:26 PM

Oh I will feed him till he kicks off Bobster. Once you start ya gotta keep at it cause they become dependent. When the weather gets bad my cats come inside. Right now I can't keep them in the house they just want to be out. Since it is my home and not my office they are safe from cars for sure. The coon came by late tonight, normally it is right at dusk but I didn't hear him until after 11 my time sitting on the porch enjoying his cat food with my old cat laying next to him ..

gotta wait to get a picture, too dark and he scats when the light goes on. go figure, normally doesn't care when I come out

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 01:25 PM

Bobert, luckily I've just read the thread about US/UK misunderstandings, and realised that 'pissed' means rather cross, and NOT drunk. Here in UK, you get pissed if you've had a few too many beers. I imagined this clever little racoon going into the pub and ordering a double whiskey!

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 03:16 PM

Good luck with this raccoon. I'm fond of the little bandits myself, having had one as a pet that our dog brought home years ago. But they can turn nasty when they become a year or so old, and could severely injure a pet or a child if they wanted to.

We've had several home invasions by raccoon families where we're living now. The cats regard them as heavy tanks and never threaten them. We shoo them out with a broom.

We haven't been troubled by raccoons since I retrofitted the deck of the porch catdoor with a 12 inch wall, which is already 10 inches off the porch flooring. Raccoons are great climbers but they can't jump like cats.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 04:04 PM

I have posted this before, but a friend on the edge of town had a female skunk that raised a litter under his porch. He has a cat, who got along fine with the skunks. When the kits were big enough, the family wandered of into the bush.
When I was a kid, I had a friend with a pet skunk, and another had a coyote. Foxes also tame. "Wild" animals are not permitted as pets here.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 04:36 PM

When I lived in a rural area, my cats lived in my garage where they had a box insulated with padding as their "nest" and freedom to wander outdoors through an opening in the foundation. One day I parked in the carport, opened the side door to the garage, and found two raccoons had entered the garage and were happily enjoying the cat food. I called someone who knew about these things who said the raccoons were probably a young pair of siblings. I rented traps (the kind that don't cause injuries) and relocated the youngsters to a large state-owned wooded park where I hope they fared well. In the meantime I had to keep the cats inside the house which they tried to escape whenever the door was opened.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 05:05 PM

I agree with Bobert - you can end up with a population explosion when you add that pet food into a wild environment. You might want to put an insulated dog house or something on the porch for the little guy later if it doesn't figure out how to stay warm outside; I doubt you want it in the house staying warm come the first snowfall.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Becca72
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 03:24 PM

"and you couldn't really pick it up and set it down 'cause it would get all hissy..."

Reminds me of my mother... :-)

Thanks for the smile today, Old Dude. I was at my sister's yesterday and ended up going home with a baby mouse that was hanging out in her kitchen. I don't figure he's more than a couple weeks old and cute as hell so we couldn't squish him; I can totally relate to the "sucker" role!

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: gnu
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 03:59 PM

I take a moose home but not a mouse.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Becca72
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 04:02 PM

Anyone know how long mice usually live (provided the cats don't get to him before he runs the course...)?

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: maeve
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 04:07 PM

I'd take a chocolate mousse home any day. There is already a sufficiency of mice and moose.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 04:07 PM

Living near the mountains, some of the larger animals come to town, but mountain lions stay farther out (usually).
My daughter got a good picture of a lion which had made a deer kill on her property in the Foothills west of Calgary, and put it on her website. Now a grandson, who lives in a small B.C. town, sent us a picture of one taking its ease in his back yard. His cat has disappeared, and perhaps the lion is back looking for another.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: olddude
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 04:18 PM

Q
OH my gosh, that is scary for sure ... wow ... had to watch out for black bears back home but that was about the only thing. That and snapping turtles. When it was spawning time they would crawl out of the river and wander into my yard. I always worried when my daughter was young and playing outside that time of the year.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 05:18 PM

Becca-

Mice live 3-4 years at the most. But you'll learn a whole lot about them in that time.

We kept the black and white spotted pet mouse that our cat "rescued" one winter for about three years in an old aquarium. He grew to be quite friendly, loved cheerios.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: gnu
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 05:23 PM

But, if you ever run out of Cheerios, it would kill you while you are asleep and eat you... and the cat would help it.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 08:42 PM

One more comment about the mountain lions of British Columbia, at least those around the central part. They are a beautiful silver grey. I remember seeing a couple in New Mexico and they were light tan.
My father knew Badger Clark when he was a ranger. Clark had a pet lion, raised from a lost or abandoned cub. Quite docile. He was playing with it once, mock wrestling. The lion playfully swung a paw and hit Badger on the side of the head, knocking him cold. When he came to, the lion was licking his face, the coarse tongue almost making it raw.
Not all that large, but these cats are powerful.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: olddude
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 09:04 PM

Incredibly powerful animal, I watched on a nature show one running up a steep mountain with a full grown whitetail in it mouth like it was carrying nothing ...

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 02:37 AM

Lots of people feed rat-coons...

Almost anywhere in the US, about all you have to do to feed the 'coons is leave the lid on your trash can a little loose.

I've watched (from my motel room window on the third floor) as many as a dozen 'coons dumpster diving in the alley below - in the middle of downtown Philadelphia.

Similar sights, with somewhat fewer of the critters in each bunch, in Seattle, Barstow, Yuma, and Milwaukee.

Skunks are very similar, and about as ubiquitous; but unless you walk your cats very late at night you'll never know they're around.

'possums are about the most common "night visitor" I've seen in our back yards recently. They're not even cute, IMO. I had to "dispatch" two in separate incidents a few years ago because they attacked our dog, and refused to leave.

Although they've always been limited to areas well south, we've begun seeing quite a few armadillos here, and up to at least 150 miles north beyond here. So far I haven't heard of anyone trying to make a pet of one - or anyone nearby with an urge to eat one. ('possum on the hardshell?)

(A recent minor outbreak of Hansen's disease about 100 miles ESE of here was blamed on handling them, and news reports implied that in a few subcultures in that area eating them was fairly common, although not frequent. That's an area where they've been common for a long time.)

I have seen a couple of porcupines in surprisingly densely populated areas. One was looking for bubble gum at the front door to City Hall in one of the Seattle suburbs at about 04:00 am one morning.

It's claimed that there were once lots of beavers in my area, but granddaddy said my great grandma trapped them all. She got some, but I think the Corps of Engrs has more to do with their current absence, since the whole area is "drainage controlled" and CofE wouldn't let 'em keep a dam long enough to put the third stick in it.

We've had claims of sightings of cougars in the area for years, but only in the past couple of years were two or three convincingly confirmed. One was a road kill, and another was carrying a tracking chip and came about 300 miles in from Colorado - - - and then went back home. A third one was "seen," and scat found in the area passed a DNA test to convince the "reporter's" friends he was sane (although they said still probably drunk).

John

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 08:34 AM

gnu-

No, Dilbert the Mouse wouldn't have eaten us while we slept. He would just perch on the bedpost and sing his mouse lullabies.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Becca72
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 09:58 AM

I believe "Stewart" is a deer mouse. I don't think he's doing all that well, actually, and the stress of it all may be his undoing. I'll check on him when I get home tonight but I have my doubts that the poor little guy will make it. At least he got to spend a couple days in nice cushy digs and absolutely stuff himself full of mouse food...
He looks a lot like this little guy

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 10:09 AM

You may need to feed Stewart some whole milk with an eyedropper.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: ranger1
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 01:58 PM

Becca, how developed is Stewart? As in does he have hair and are his eyes open? If he's at that stage, he may not adjust to life in captivity. I tried keeping a deer mouse once, and it just went catatonic until I released it back outside. If he's still really young, you may have to take a Q-tip dipped in warm water and stroke his lower belly so he'll poop.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Becca72
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 04:27 PM

He is fully covered with fur but his eyes don't open all that well...not sure if it's because of his age or if there is something wrong. He was eating crumbs off the kitchen floor and he has gone to town on the food and water I put in with him. He's probably only an inch from nose to tail, though. I have a feeling he's going to have gone to the great beyond by the time I get home, though.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: gnu
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 04:34 PM

JiK... Hansen's disease? Leprosy!!?? I'd be a tad concerned about that.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 04:54 PM

gnu -

It's now completely cured fairly easily (where treatment is available), although rare enough that early symptoms may not be recognized in time to prevent damage that can't be easily repaired.

If it's known to be present in an area, people - and especially medical practicioners - need to be aware and use appropriate caution.

Re-examining our attitudes and preconceived ideas about it probably would be rewarding for most of the rest of us(?) since the "reality" of the disease has changed quite significantly.

It does remain an "incurable affliction" in some world areas where poverty makes any medical treatment rare, and in some areas where religions have incorporated taboos about it; but in most reasonably developed parts of the world it's just "a bit nasty."

John

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 05:05 PM

Raccoons have entered the southern foothills of the Rockies in Alberta. They frequently raid the garbage in south coastal B. C. but occurrence in Alberta is not common. There has been a sighting or two in south Calgary.
A few years back, starlings got to be fairly common in Calgary, but haven't seen any for some time.

We had a cat that showed up proudly at the front door with a raccoon tail from one of those Davy Crockett hats.

Subject: RE: BS: What the Cat dragged home
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 05:51 PM

My grandson now thinks a bear got his cat, not cougars.
Checking B. C. stats, cougars have only killed five humans in the past 100 years, but bees kill three a year on average.
Southern Alberta has the largest cougar subspecies on the continent and hunting is permitted December to February. Sightings are rare, and tracking with dogs is the usual hunt method.