party season for raccoons, I guess

[ritaxis]

So I'm trying to gather the strength to go to bed and the dog keeps barking. Earlier she rushed out of the house in a blind fury and treed a raccoon in the apple tree. Sounds so -- pastoral or something, right? Remember, I live in the "inner city" part of a college town. Anyway, I brought the dog in an she is restless hours later because the raccoons are having some kind of party in the almond trees --in the fall I swear they get drunk on rotting apples, but at this time of year there's only green almonds, and I doubt they make you drunk. Maybe raccoons.

Remember back in February I said it was high spring and some of you guys who live in other climates were jealous? And I said just wait till May when the summer drought starts and all the green hills here turn yellow and you're still in the middle of spring?

Here 'tis. Dry old hills, the grinning phantom of wildfire gathering its smoky old cloak, and it's summer. We got the tourists to prove it.

The raccoons seem to have gone to bed at last, and so will I.

Comments

I do feel your pain

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

I DO live in the inner city, we're pretty much urbia (look up Hyde Park in Kansas City, MO)

However, we have a large supply of feral cats. And it's spring, and the sap is rising, and even if a lot of the combatants were neutralized they're still yowling and fighting, and the fertile females are howling and inciting to riot.

including my indoor, neutered, 14-month-old male. He really really wants to get in on the action and the two older neutered females in the house are ready to boot his head to Mars if he sticks his face into their cooter one more time. His sissie (same age) will let him air hump her...did I mention all my cats are neutered? And I do not EVER let them out? The two older ones are getting really tired of it and he may end up lacerated if he keeps it up.

We have raccoons in the neighborhood, as well as opossums, but they don't cause as much distress as the feral cats. At least the feral cats keep the squirrels down.

Re: I do feel your pain

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

We used to have a lot of cats -- I wonder what happened? It wasn't the pack of wild dogs that used to live here, because after they were relocated, the cats were still here.

The raccoon hung around all night, delivering some kind of travelog about the almond trees, driving my dog and therefore presumably the neighbors thoroughly insane. We tried stuffing her under the bedcovers but she explained that she couldn't breathe under there so I went downstairs and got a leash. It worked surprisingly well: she stayed put and didn't bark again.

But the damage was done and I didn't sleep well the rest of the night. And now I have a headache again.

Re: I do feel your pain

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

We have no feral cats, no raccoons, no groundhogs, no deer, no fox, no small mammals at all, because a batch of coyotes moved into the woods behind the buildings.