Rabid Raccoon

[Biggreenavalanche]

Raccoons are in fact mainly nocturnal.... "The diet of the omnivorous raccoon, which is usually nocturnal, consists of about 40% invertebrates, 33% plant foods, and 27% vertebrates." (Wikipedia)...yeah, they'll come out during the daytime, occassionally...but not usually around humans...OP took steps he thought were necessary to protect "his" and probably the rest of the neighborhood...I don't condone wanton killing, however, based on the OP's statement I think he did the correct thing...I've done the same and will do so again if necessary...

Rich

 

[retiredmgn]

Maybe the idea of her own or a loved one's brain or other internal organs being being devoured by internal parasites ... ...

yeahhh...I think there's a clause in my living will, if my brain is being consumed by parasites or aliens, shoot me now.

 

[dmccarty]

yeahhh...I think there's a clause in my living will, if my brain is being consumed by parasites or aliens, shoot me now.

In the last week or so I read a story about a boy who got bit by a rabid animal. I think it was a Fox Fire book so it is likely something that happening in the early 20th century. The story was horrible. The boy got rabies and the neighboring men would come and sit with the boy as he died. It took days for that boy to die a horrible death. The boy kept telling the care givers to not let him bite them. Then there were the stories of people getting killed by cougars.

Rabies is rampant in our area and we have never seen a raccoon at our place or nearby. Never sighted a coon, no prints and no poop. I used to clean coon scat out of pools as a summer job and I do know what that scat looks like. I think the reason we do not see any coons is from rabies.
Later,
Dan

 

[PILOON]

Couple years ago we had a raccoon climb onto our porch daily and have an afternoon nap curled up against the patio door.
My wife said the coon just wanted a rest from her litter.
Sure enough she later introduced us to her 4 young and even swatted them from time to time to keep them in line.
While we did not feed them they did gather bird feed that dropped onto the ground.

 

[PILOON]

Couple years ago we had a raccoon climb onto our porch daily and have an afternoon nap curled up against the patio door.
My wife said the coon just wanted a rest from her litter.
Sure enough she later introduced us to her 4 young and even swatted them from time to time to keep them in line.
While we did not feed them they did gather bird feed that dropped onto the ground.

 

[Tollster]

I found a baby coon crossing the road one june day when i was 16,ma was nowhere to be found and neither where any of his kin. He was malnourished and wobbly. I grabbed theblanket from the back seat and covered him, picked him up like a sack and took him home.
I was looking him over when I noticed a part in his fur,I looked into the part, and lice had just hatched,they where going in every direction deepin his coat, he also had a couple wood ticks in his ears. I went to the local drug store and got some lice medicine for head lice,I think it was really linseed oil, soaked him down with it,and let it on him for 15 minutes or so,meanwhile he licked some of it off his fur, then acted really drunk. I littlerally stuck my thumb on his tongue and lower teeth and used my index finger on his lower jaw to open his mounth like a hindge and poured milk down his throat.
He finally came around and trun out to be a cool pet for almost 4 years before he left and never came back. He would follow me through the woods,down to the creek to gather crawdads, ride on the hood playing with the antena in my 67 impala 4 door, ride the dog like a horse, and ball up the meanest barn cats till they cried uncle... Rocky Racoon was cool,and what a h ellrazer he was!
Any woodsman with a lick of sense can tell a rabid animal and the OP made the call, he seemed to point out many of the details one may look for and prolly saw more he failed to mention. Pretty sure it wasn't the first coon he saw. And yes,I have seen them during the day and no they didn't have rabies, just a pleasure to watch along the shore side.