Blackcat31 07:22 AM 08-29-2018
As a parent was leaving after drop off this morning, she texted and said to look out the front window as there is a raccoon sitting in the church parking lot (across the street from me).
The kids and I went out onto the front deck and looked at the furry little cutie!
Then we noticed he was definitely acting "weird". He kept trying to lay down and curl up in a ball in the middle of the street and would roll over and hiss at nothing.
A DCF lives in the house directly behind the church and the DCD pulled out of his driveway and drove up the street along side the raccoon. Took a look at him and then drove the remaining 500 feet and parked in the driveway here for drop off. He called the Community Assistance officer as he was checking out the raccoon. He said something definitely appears "off" about him.
DCD drops DCK and we all continue to watch the activities. The Community Service officer arrives and seriously paces back and forth in the neighbors lawn sort of scratching his head and saying "I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do."
After a bunch of attempts to corral him and/or force him in the direction they wanted, he was eventually caught in a live trap and taken away....
It's fairly normal around here for wild life to make it's way into the city and this was by no means odd...it was just funny all around as no one seemed to know what to do.... The whole time I am thinking
"this is what happens when it's all written down but no one's actually done it!"
amberrose3dg 08:12 AM 08-29-2018
nannyde 08:23 AM 08-29-2018
Cat Herder 08:35 AM 08-29-2018
I have a few that hang out around here. They can become quite sociable.
Leigh 08:36 AM 08-29-2018
Ariana 08:44 AM 08-29-2018
We have had neighbourhood reports of drunk racoons acting funny. They munch on the fermenting crab apples and various other fruits like plums etc falling from the trees right now and sometimes people find racoons passed out in the middle of their driveways!!
My neighbour has a plum tree and the birds get wasted on them in the fall!!
Racoons cannot handle their fermneted fruit apprently
Blackcat31 08:50 AM 08-29-2018
amberrose3dg 08:53 AM 08-29-2018
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
Right!?! That was my thought too...
"Great, now this will need to be added to the emergency response plan.....somewhere on page 382."
Yeah really, yikes.
nannyde 10:32 AM 08-29-2018
storybookending 10:38 AM 08-29-2018
A raccoon acting weird that’s out during daylight hours probably has rabies or something. My dads friend had a pet raccoon when I was a kid, it used the litter box like a cat.
daycarediva 10:53 AM 08-29-2018
Tin Blues 11:18 AM 08-29-2018
Rabies was my first thought, too.
DaveA 11:50 AM 08-29-2018
lovemykidstoo 12:03 PM 08-29-2018
I had one on my front porch in the corner a few years ago. Animal control captured it and tested it and it had rabies. Scary because they can be pretty nasty. What did they end up doing with it BC?
Snowmom 12:23 PM 08-29-2018
Entertaining, I'm sure!
I'm sure you'll end up hearing if it did have rabies.
There was a bat around the Mpls lakes area that ended up having rabies and they posted warnings everywhere to let people know.
Blackcat31 01:19 PM 08-29-2018
Originally Posted by lovemykidstoo:
What did they end up doing with it BC?
No idea... I figured I'd go ask the neighbor later this afternoon and see if they know.
Originally Posted by Snowmom:
Entertaining, I'm sure!
I'm sure you'll end up hearing if it did have rabies.
There was a bat around the Mpls lakes area that ended up having rabies and they posted warnings everywhere to let people know.
Yikes! I don't mind bats so much as they eat mosquitoes but the thought of them flying around with rabies is creepy for sure!
Blackcat31 01:35 PM 08-29-2018
Originally Posted by DaveA:
wouldn't be surprised if that happened.
Raccoons are pretty much a "shoot on sight" animal on my property. What they can do to a chicken coop isn't pretty. I've never understood how a beneficial animal like a possum gets such a crappy rep because it's ugly while a 20 pound carnivorous rat is "Cute".
Usually at my house, it's that way because yes... raccoons aren't exactly beneficial so they can't really "live" with us like the rabbits and the deer do....
We had one earlier this Spring and my DH had to trap it in a live trap. He had planned to set it free but those little buggers are vicious!
DH had on his welding gloves and still couldn't grab onto the handle of the trap without being bit and hissed at. In hindsight it was kind of funny but not...kwim? He ended up having to put the poor thing down as it had done a good deal of damage to itself trying to claw it's way out of the trap before we got to it.
Later that same night I was watching an episode of Northwoods Law or some show like that and they had shown a raccoon being trapped in the same type of trap and being driven a few miles into the woods where the DNR officer set the trap down and stepped back a couple inches and lifted the door so that the fluffy little cuddly puff ball could waddle off into the woods with a sweet appreciative expression on its face. Forever grateful to the nice man that saved him.
I found myself standing up in the living room screaming at the TV
"FAKE NEWS! FAKE NEWS!! That raccoon is an actor as that is NOT how that stuff happens in real life!!!"
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
"this is what happens when it's all written down but no one's actually done it!"
So true
I'm betting it had rabies.
LysesKids 02:24 PM 08-29-2018
Originally Posted by Mike:
So true
I'm betting it had rabies.
No worse than my son sending a picture to me of the rooster walking down a 4 lane road near where I grew up... no joke; off of Veirs Mill in Wheaton, MD - a fricken' Rooster. Now I'm not sure about the laws, but Montgomery Co is pretty strict & always was when it came to certain animals not living on a farm even back in the day just because it's near Wash DC
flying_babyb 04:51 PM 09-02-2018
we had deer outside my old center. I miss them! The one I work at now is way to city, and we do enjoy watching the local squirrel who someone is feeding.
LysesKids 05:51 PM 09-02-2018
Originally Posted by flying_babyb:
we had deer outside my old center. I miss them! The one I work at now is way to city, and we do enjoy watching the local squirrel who someone is feeding.
You won't like the deer when they come crashing thru a glass window of a school daycare... it happened my youngest before I was doing childcare; heck in Eureka Springs, AR its a given that deer walk down the middle of the street & lay in peoples yards everyday. Made it interesting for the tourists and the kids were use to it lol. Actually got to the point the city gave permission to
bow hunt them because they became so tame ( this is where I lived before moving to TN)