Posted on 05/18/2012 2:29:14 PM PDT by SMGFan
HOUSTON--At the Stop and Save in Richwood, youll find lottery tickets, beer and fishing bait, plus a gaze of raccoons--thats what theyre called in groups. They've taken up residence in the woods behind the store.
"They eat everything," said Stephanie Rutkowske, a local animal lover. "Doritos, Cheetos, chocolate. Or a big bag of cat food. Theyll eat that just as good too."
(Excerpt) Read more at khou.com ...
He totally ignored life fish tossed right in front of him.
.22 rounds in the gravel right in front of his face had zero effect.
One .380 Glazer straight down between his shoulder blades severed his spine and flattened him out like a raccoon rug. (And, yes, he tested positive for rabies...)
He totally ignored life fish tossed right in front of him.
.22 rounds in the gravel right in front of his face had zero effect.
One .380 Glazer straight down between his shoulder blades severed his spine and flattened him out like a raccoon rug. (And, yes, he tested positive for rabies...)
[somebody had to ;-]
CORN-FRIED RACCOON Ingredients: 7 (drippings .. flakes .. flour .. milk .. pieces ...) Soak raccoon in milk to cover ... most of the fat, stir in flour, brown. Add cold milk, cooking and stirring until heated and thickened. Serves 6.
FRICASSEED RACCOON Ingredients: 6 (broth .. fat .. flour .. raccoon .. salt ...) Clean raccoon and remove all fat. ... flour. Cook in hot fat until brown, add the broth, cover and simmer for 2 hours or until tender. 8 servings.
BAKED STUFFED RACCOON WITH APPLES Ingredients: 10 (apples .. cinnamon .. crumbs .. onions .. pork ...) Skin and clean the raccoon. Wash well and ... for 1 hour, basting as often as possible. Transfer to a heated platter surrounded by the whole onions.
RACCOON FOR CROCKPOT Ingredients: 7 (broth .. honey .. raccoon .. salt .. sauce .. sherry ...) Clean raccoon, quarter, and remove ... grease and discard before thickening remaining liquid for gravy. Meat will brown and be tender and delicious.
RACCOON MEAT LOAF Ingredients: 8 (crumbs .. eggs .. milk .. onion .. raccoon .. salt ...) Clean raccoon and remove fat. Cut ... meat loaf pan, set in a pan of hot water and bake in a moderate oven, 350 degrees for 1 3/4 hours. 8 servings.
Make dandy earrings, too. Had a set once, and a set of minks.
“They are not welcome on my property.”
A good ‘coon is a dead ‘coon.
Did your mother’s raccoons come walking on their hind legs like I described?
Rabies is a, terrible, *terrible* thing.
Her babies were just about gone anyway and she too was rabid yet she kept coming back to protect them from me.
She actually stood up between them and me and raised her paws in what appeared to be a warding gesture.
It was heartbreaking.
I *had* to put them out of their obvious agony but other than going after my dogs to keep them away from her kids and putting herself between me and them, she didn’t seem that ‘abnormal’.
[frankly, I expected them to test positive and her to be negative but that’s not how it worked out]
It was a horrible choice I had to make but a necessary one.
I would love to forget it but it’s apparently going to stay with me for a long time.
I pray to God I never have to do something like that again.
A huge mountain lion or bear charging you is one thing; an early stage rabid coon mama protecting her dying babies is another.
Even in her horrible sickness, she was a mother, to the end.
It was not a ‘triumphant’ moment in my life.
[and *all* of this came about because the idiot up on the hill started feeding hordes of stray, unvaccinated cats 20 lb bags of food every evening, attracting every possible rabies vector down off the mountains and into our yards. we’ve had a verified epidemic here for several years]
You did what you had to. Knowing how you are with animals, I was expecting stories of pet ‘coons, not this.
Not generally, but they did stand up like that on occasion when they were watching for movement inside the house (before they resorted to banging on the back door). When you see one of them stand on its hind legs, it's cute. When it's a group of a dozen or more, the sight is a wee bit disturbing.
The coon I had was from a neighbor who had it from just a baby. Well he let it have the run of the neighborhood and was trashing people’s garbage cans. He brought it to me to have when people threatened to shoot it as I had a big cage I wasn’t using at the time.
Once I put that coon into the cage he was instantly vicious. To get him out I would put on leather work gloves and then welding gloves. I’d open the cage. Stick a hand in. And when he chomped down on my hand, I’d grab him, take him into my room and let him go.
He’d snap and snarl for a good long time. As long as he came to me, he was the most friendly pet I’d ever had. But when I came up to him, I never knew what kind of mood he was in.
One of my friends would talk me into taking the coon with us in the car. It really freaked out the hitch hiker we picked up. My friend knew the owner of a record store and one weekend night we went over there. I was waiting in the car with the coon, when he came out and said the owner said it was OK to bring the coon into the store.
So here I go into the record store with the coon in my arms.
After a while he got up on my shoulders and was pacing back and forth. Then he went to get down, down my stomach. I stuck my arms out to grab him and he bit me right in the throat.
I grabbed him in the center of his back and yanked him off my throat. He was like a buzz saw by then. He was going for both my arms and my chest. I think his skin was loose enough that he could spin around three times.
I knew there was no way I could let him get loose in that store. So here I went. Out of that store as fast as I could go. With that spinning buzz saw of a coon trying his best to get away from me. I threw him back into the car and got in there with him. Somehow I got him back to the house and in the cage.
Well. You would of thought I would of learned something from all of that. No. Not this kid. Again I got talked into taking the coon with us in the car. But this time the car broke down right around the corner from the house. I let the windows down and once coon got out of the car, with a little persuasion. I convinced him to escape to the bayou, we were right next to.
My friend bottle fed 2 coons years before that. When they were small, neighborhood dogs picked on them and they never forgot. When they were full grown, they went after those dogs. One would prance down the center of the road. When a dog would go after him, he would be attached from behind by the other coon. And then both coons would be tearing up that dog. That didn’t last for too long before both of his coons were shot.
The pet coons were before we got the epidemic although I really prefer possums or groundhogs.
Now I view all coons with wary suspicion.
I make a point to not give them a reason to be here [secure goat feed bins] and the trash goes out mere hours before the junkman arrives.
I don’t see them much anymore.
They do visit the catfish pond up the lane but that’s far enough away for my comfort and I let them be.
Also, the neighbor has a small Parsons terrier and little grandadughters who play in the yard next to mine during the day.
There was no way around it.
I guess it was lucky they came into my yard rather than his, considering.
Your wish is my command...
Nor was mine, As you can see, I tried everything I could to distract it from charging out from beneath the vehicle and attacking my feet while I tried to secure the boat.
It was somewhat unsteady, but relentless. I even managed to use my boot to flip it on its back a couple of times when it got close. Every time, it got back up and charged directly for my feet again.
But when it didn't even blink when I splattered its face with sand & gravel with the .22, I knew I had no choice. I couldn't drive with the boat unsecured, so I put it down with a single shot. It apparently never knew what hit it, I hope so, at least...
Triumph -- no. Relief -- yes.
they scare me....they can be very vicious....ever see two of them fighting and you won’t forget it...
OMG...CUTE OVERLOAD!!!!
It was suffering horribly.
You were very humane.
I know of no greater compliment than that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.