Yesterday coming home from a quick trip to a nearby town for a forgotten item, as my sweetie was pulling in the driveway, he noticed something in the ditch and said "that's not a raccoon is it"? Yep it was, a very confused but determined juvenile animal. He wasn't very large at all and still very cute. I'm betting that his/her mama was ready to have babies and chased him out of his den. The only problems for him in our area would be dogs. The neighbour's two dogs pretty much roam free thoughout the area and do a daily sweep of their territory. They're friendly dogs and sometimes at night you'll hear them make a huge racket, when something that shouldn't comes too near. We have a dog, who doesn't go outside a lone, but he doesn't like the wandering feral cat or the bunnies coming too near the house. I don't imagine he'd be any happier with a raccoon nearby. Beside us is a Standardbred Horse breeder who has a dog as well.
So this poor baby raccoon is trying to find a place to go. He's coming from the direction of the farm with 2 dogs. He's terrified of the vehicles on the road. He's trying to cross our place, but my sweetie is yelling at him and trying to get him to move on. It doesn't matter where he goes, unless he crosses the road and finds a home in the bush lot there, which may very well be where he came from, there are dogs on our side of the road and it's not very welcoming for small animals.
He was curled up by a large pine tree, hiding when I left for a meeting after supper. When I got home, my sweetie said the neighbour dogs were wandering by our place when the big one caught the scent of something and tore off. A few minutes later, she came by on the way home, with something in her mouth. He did assure me it wasn't furry, but it was a good size. I'm hoping it wasn't the young raccoon; that he found a safe haven someplace before the dogs found him. While we didn't want him living in our yard, we had hoped he'd be able to find a safe place to call home. However, there have been a lot of young raccoons on the roads lately, so perhaps this is one way of keeping the population down.
It's really not fair that such a potentially nuisance animal is so awfully cute when young.
He was curled up by a large pine tree, hiding when I left for a meeting after supper. When I got home, my sweetie said the neighbour dogs were wandering by our place when the big one caught the scent of something and tore off. A few minutes later, she came by on the way home, with something in her mouth. He did assure me it wasn't furry, but it was a good size. I'm hoping it wasn't the young raccoon; that he found a safe haven someplace before the dogs found him. While we didn't want him living in our yard, we had hoped he'd be able to find a safe place to call home. However, there have been a lot of young raccoons on the roads lately, so perhaps this is one way of keeping the population down.
We have three ones that live on and off in our yard. So far they have been nothing but delightful. We keep waiting for them to figure out how to pick the locks and coe in and make sandwiches.
ReplyDeleteI don't regret the loss of a rabbit or ground squirrel, but the racoons and coyotes are of concern.
ReplyDeleteWe've one grey tree squirrel who I don't mind coming to my bird feeder. So far his only antic seems to be moving an occasional bulb: I've got a daffodil growing in the middle of the yard. Raccoons will eat the chickens if food isn't easy enough to come by and our old house has many hideyholes and places for one to get into trouble. There are wandering cats - barn or feral, which help with rodent control. A raccoon would be dangerous to them as well. Then there is the raccoon rabies etc.. nope, I'd rather not have a raccoon living too close, despite the fact that they are cute and cuddly looking, with much personality. Coyotes, we have in abundance. You can hear them howling at night and we've seen them boldly cross roads and hang out in places where people live. In the autumn last year we had a huge problem with coyotes in nearby townships on either side of us, with many more sightings than usual and evidence of them running in small packs, even treeing a bow hunter last year who had to shoot his way out of his predicament.
ReplyDeleteWhat cute pictures! They really are cute when they're little, aren't they.
ReplyDeleteI love your new blog look. It's it a great way to share favorite photos?