This is specially for Kat'rina Sweden ...
YOU don't get raccoons over here. They're totally a North American critter. Sometimes I think my hamsters look like raccoons, because of the cute furriness and beady eyes ...
In some ways they're equivalent to our foxes, because they sneak into gardens, root through the trash ... etc. But they're much friendlier and less sly ...
... most of the time! But even when they're peeved they still look cute:
As well as snaffling our food, they love to climb "our" trees ...
... and get in places they're not "supposed" to be ...
Raccoons have a wide, varied and versatile diet, and this brings them into contact with humans. Just like (some) people they like to wash their food before eating it. This is called "dousing":
The raccoon breeding season is in late summer. Females carry their babies all through the winter ... finally giving birth to an average 2 to 5 young in the spring ...
Baby raccoons are tiny ...
... and cute.
And grown-up raccoons do entertaining things sometimes as well ...
Raccoons love catfood. Cats don't always love raccoons:
HAVE A CHEERY WEEKEND, Y'ALL!
They are great aren't they. Not that our American cousins would agree. I once saw a doco, David Attenborough I think about how wiley they are at breaking into things. Love their little burgler's mask.
ReplyDeleteGrew up around them, they'd run up the trees and sometimes, if you gave off the "right" air, they'd accept a piece of cheddar from you hand - sometimes swiss lol but watch those teeth, yikes. Another little furry creature you're addicted to eh? You'd never make it as a road-kill guy. It's a common practice in many parts of the USA - w/the way things are slipping downhill, it might be a viable food option. Hope that doesn't make you queasy? :-|
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU gledwood!!!!!!! i LOVE LOVE LOVE raccoons, that was so sweet of u to do furry friday with raccoons, here is the raccoon i took care of for a few weeks !!!!!
ReplyDeletehttp://sleepymaniac.blogspot.com/2009/07/theodor-kaczynski.html
just copy/paste url and check out THE cutest raccoon baby ever!!!!
and ps
my moms dog Jake is a "goldipoo" its a mix between golden retreiver and standard poodle, since u asked what breed he was.
loves ya gledwood!!!!!! lol
We had a lot of raccoons at our cottage growing up - one continually got in the garbage bin regardless of how my Dad tied it down...he shot it - it was a new mother and you could hear the wee babies crying in a nearby tree.
ReplyDeleteAnd an old one chose to die in our yard years ago but I haven't seen any in the city since.
check out the now famous completely hairless raccoon, she is hanging around near my house in parkdale, soooo weird huh, check out the video
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdpWlZz2W_4
supposedly she lost all her hair due to some weird disease, and people have been asked to try to rescue her (there is a number to call the wildlife center so they can pick her up) since she will probably not be able to survive the winter without ANY fur!! freaky looking thing.
What an entertaining video. Cheeky little bugger and the cat wasn't quite sure what to do. I loved the look on the cat's face after the first foray by the raccoon. If it could speak, I reckon we'd have heard four letter words...
ReplyDeleteBaino: the swines!
ReplyDeleteCathy: o yeah I'd eat a roadkill deer any day. Someone told me how to peel the fur off...
Sweden: you're welcome ;->...
Jeannie: what a horrible story
Sweden: OK I'm checking now
Pussinboots: o yeah! I think the cat quite liked the raccoon bc if it had gone full-on that rac' wouldn't have come anywhere near it
ps I don't want to think about dying raccoon babies in a tree. But I can't stop now
ReplyDeleteThey have such sweet faces. I have only seen once a real racoon in liberty and that was in the States at my aunt's house. Otherwise I have seen them in zoos ! Not so a nice place for them.
ReplyDeleteRe letter boxes, it all depends where you live, there are a lot of houses where the letter boxes are in the house too. I think it is the same in the UK, because at my friend's house in Eastbourne the letter box is also standing at the end of their garden.
They can be vicious little critters at times. My husband was once chased by one when he was throwing out trash and inadvertently came across him.
ReplyDeleteOh, they are pretty! Love that one of a baby on a hand.
ReplyDeleteRaccoons are cute until they break into your house. Then they aren't so fun. I had one get into my roof over my bathroom. That started a war in which I finally prevailed and convinced the raccoon to take up residence elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteThey are very cute, I'd never seen one that hadn't been made into a coat before.
ReplyDeleteYeah, their cute until they get into your house and kill your cats. It happen to a friend of mine, my mentor actually. She's still upset about the death of her two babies.
ReplyDeleteJanice~
That's so weird, i just wrote about how mad I was last week when I saw four raccoons almost get hit by my house the other day. They're all over around VT/NH but I love them. They're so smart and crafty.
ReplyDeleteCute pictures Gleds, except for the one where it's baring its teeth! LOL
ReplyDeleteI see you left comments on my post in Welsh - is that yet another language you're learning? :)
Great post and photos, my dear Gleddy.
ReplyDeleteHope your weekend was good.
Love,
SB
Gattina: I know what you're saying re letterboxes but (probably until fairly recently) nearly 100% of people have them. I really think it's an imposition having a hole directly into your home anyone can shove anything into... not nice (potentially!)
ReplyDeleteHey I heard raccoons are wild or rather ferral in France... and slowly advancing north towards Calais and the Channel Tunnel ... along with those naughty chipmunks!
AnonymousDrifter: really? Their teeth look pretty heavy-duty to me...
Welshcakes: aye!
Molson: do you think it pinged around much inside ..?
LornaLilo: hadn't been made into a coat... UH?!?
Janice: KILL CATS?? NO!!
ReplyDeleteI have to say I looked at that raccoon vs cat and thought ~ well the cat could get that raccoon away if it really wanted to.
I also thought: that racoon could KILL that cat if it really wanted to, too!
So they ARE like foxes then. Foxes will e.g. sneak into a farm and slaughter an entire shedload of 100s of chickens in one night
supposedly in the natural order of things they'd return night after night to eat the rest of their kill... but it still sounds ridiculously excessive to me...
Nellie: aye ~ just like foxes again!!
Akelamalu: no but we had to do it at school. Because I went to 2ndary school in Wales. We all had compulsory Welsh lessons.
But if I'd not bought my own Teach Yourself Living Welsh tome I'd have been totally lost, the lazy way they taught the language over there.
The Welsh teachers, having picked the tongue up from the cradle, had never actually "learned" a language in their lives. Totally unlike our French and German teachers. And the difference really showed in INEPTITUDE!
SarcasticBastard: it was quite pukka, ta; apart from the nightmare I'll post tomorrow ... and yours..?
Awww you find the cutest fur babies Gleds*!*
ReplyDeleteRaccoons are cute, but very wild and dangerous, and they can get really really big.
ReplyDeleteBimbimbie: aye-aye!!
ReplyDeleteWat: I've never seen one in real life...
O I have seen a porcupine in India. That was fearsome!!
Awesome. Beautiful animal! That cat is a bit dumb. But the raccoon is also very smart how he takes the food with his front paws while keeping his head back!
ReplyDelete