Urban Wildlife
 

This was on my front porch tonight:



Baby Raccoons!!!!!!

There were actually 3 and the mama.

I really don't encourage the local wildlife to hang out in my yard, but I have a person who drops off donated dog food for me to deliver to a shelter and, if I don't know it is out there, I get "visitors". Here's papa 'coon helping himself to a bag of Science Diet.



Needless to say, the donated food has to go in the trash after a raccoon's been at it. But, I decided since he was already there, I'd got some shots.

The babies have shown up a few times just hoping for left overs. The come right onto the porch even if I'm there. I won't let Thurston out in the backyard at night any more because of these guys though. They can be mean suckers - but oh so cute.


Lots more pics here.

Maybe I'll finally get off my ass in the morning and go try to get shots of the full owl family (saw 7 of them simultaneously yesterday), though the young aren't that distinguishable any more. They grow so fast.

Plenty of young ground squirrels running around still, though.

I'm sure you can get a couple LOLcoons out of that lot

TOO CUTE!!!

I asked Ken if I could have a baby raccoon and he said no. :(

Got to say that the one on the left kind of looks like a young version of those dogs that always win the "Worlds Ugliest Dog" competition. Maybe that's teh secret - dog-raccoon hybrids.

I thought they were opossum at first. But, to see them run around is pretty darned cute.

You can't see this one too well, but one of the babies has his whole top of his body stuck in the watering can getting a drink.

At least he's eating healthy!

I haven't seen the raccoon family for a few days, but Thurston goes a-barking at mysterious noises on occasions. However, a client just srote to me about my pet sitting this weekend.

Crafty little buggers, aren't they? I've been closing our big Nook window at nightfall. They'd probably rip the screen off to get to all of the nummies in our house.

This thread makes me think of the ruination of the window screen in our second bedroom, so I quickly snapped a pic. There are a lot of birds in the area and it must be them stealing bits for nest materials.

We just keep the window closed. It's our storage room anyway.

When I was telling my mom about seeing 2 of the babies, she interrupted me with a bad situation at my sister's.

My sister lives in Tehachapi, with a big gully running behind her house. They deal with skunks, snakes and raccoons. There has also been reports of mtn lions running in that gully.

They used to feed the raccoons, because they were so cute. That lasted about a month. Now the only food the coons get is when they forget to pick up the cat food at night. The raccoons are really prevalent, there almost every night.

She also has 2 dogs, doxies.

I had no idea that a raccoon will not run away, but stand and fight. Luckily it just missed Allie's anal gland when it bit through her rectum. Lila's missing pad will eventually stop oozing every time the bandage is changed. Their puncture wounds will heal, and the vet said no lasting damage.

I will never be able to look at a raccoon the same way again.



Oh, and after living in Tehachapi for 13 years, she is finally having trouble with deer in her garden.

Yeah, raccoons are cute but they can be vicious. Their claws are sharp and long and their fingers very mobile and they are fast. I won't let Thurston out in the back yard at night any longer to roam free - he only goes on supervised walks at night. Oppossoms are a little less dangerous because they are almost blind, but they do have very sharp teeth.

I don't know where I read this, but it takes an average of 2 times for a wild animal to "know" a place as a food source and 200 more visits not finding anything before they stop visiting. These guys are currently using my porch fountain as a water source, but I have been seeing them less and less. There are plenty of outdoor cats and cat food in the neighborhood for them to find.

Cars aren't the only reason all of my pet are indoor only. But, I still get a thrill seeing wildlife in the 'hood.

They can be vicious and they most likely have rabies. They've the gift of being carriers sans the symptoms. Love the babies! There's a pretty one and an ugly one - hah!

Alex, I really, really, really want to see the owl pics.