Moving a young raccoon

[Suburban Plowboy]

I'm not Canadian. I pay half my income in health insurance like a free man.

 

[Sigarms]

So the coon hunters were sleeping in your bed?
Sorry, couldn’t resist, it's just funny to me…..

Apologies. The hunters with their dogs were stupid enough to wake me while I was sleeping in my bed by going right behind my house in my field...

And yes, that was a pretty funny

 

[BackRoad]

^^^^ Glad that got cleared up!

And for the record. I live in the 'Bama part of PA. That "Wellsboro" mentioned by Mr. Sigarms is 20 minutes away.

There are lions, tigers and bears - oh yes, and pumas, black widows, rattlesnakes...and rabid coons.

It's a terribly frightful place, and there is no need for anyone to drive through here, let alone even think about moving here!!!

 

[shooterdon]

How the death of a raccoon named Conrad once united Toronto — and may bind us still

Every Torontonian has a raccoon story. But Conrad, memorialized Tuesday on the ninth anniversary of his death, may be the most memorable.

www.thestar.com

 

[Sigarms]

^^^^ Glad that got cleared up!

And for the record. I live in the 'Bama part of PA. That "Wellsboro" mentioned by Mr. Sigarms is 20 minutes away.

There are lions, tigers and bears - oh yes, and pumas, black widows, rattlesnakes...and rabid coons.

It's a terribly frightful place, and there is no need for anyone to drive through here, let alone even think about moving here!!!

It really is a beautiful area, and I had a good kayaking buddy originally from that area that talked about the area, I was just amazed at how much time I spent on I-80 driving to my parents from the west side of I-79 in the state and never came across it.

It took a trip to the Finger Lake region in NY with my son 20 years later to drive through it. When I kayaked living in eastern Pa and went up to Canada and "western upstate NY" (from Watertown west to Lake Placid area), I always went up I-81 north.

Heck, even driving from and to State college in school, I never really knew where Wellsboro was.

Had to look again. Although I thought NC would be more populated than PA (I was wrong), I thought PA would be a bigger state than NC. I was wrong yet again. Was trying to make an old "long lost" cousins funeral in Hatboro this past weekend, and couldn't due to local obligations, but was surprised the drive time was longer and further vs my parents old place in Schuykill county off I-81. Figured it would be shorter being in Southern Pa (Hatboro), but it was 50 miles longer and it generally took me 8-9 hours to get to my dads place, and being Hatboro was around Philly, no clue of the added drive time with traffic going 81 because I avoid 95 like the plague.

 

[dstig1]

It took a trip to the Finger Lake region in NY with my son 20 years later to drive through it. When I kayaked living in eastern Pa and went up to Canada and "western upstate NY" (from Watertown west to Lake Placid area), I always went up I-81 north.

As a western NY brat, you aren't even close. Lake Placid is Adirondacks and not even close to western NY. That is like 8 hrs east of were I grew up. Finger Lakes is central NY, not Western too.

And yes we used to call PA Pensyltukcy, too.

 

[WinterDeere]

And yes we used to call PA Pensyltukcy, too.

Benny Franklin is rolling in his grave.

 

[Sigarms]

As a western NY brat, you aren't even close. Lake Placid is Adirondacks and not even close to western NY. That is like 8 hrs east of were I grew up. Finger Lakes is central NY, not Western too.

You're correct, I apologize. Any decent whitewater in NY is generally north above I-90 and east of I-81.

That said, my term "western" from from getting my bearings in NY was from "upstate NY", where most people from outside the state or NYC was the Catskills.

As much as I loved NY, I'd rather move back to Pa, and that's never happening LOL

 

[BackRoad]

Coon came back and started raiding the feral cat food feeder again...and as mentioned previously, and thankfully, it's been more than 3 years since we've seen coons.

I told (no, kindly asked!) my wife to count to 30 and then open the backdoor to the deck where the coon was heads down in the cat feeder.

I slipped out the frontdoor with the 12 gauge and went around to the side of the house to wait in ambush...27...28...29...30...

It came running around the corner of the house and then paused to look back to see if my wife was following...then it saw me and took off running again, and that critter was fast!

Homeowner: 1
Raiding Coon: 0

 

[Jstpssng]

Coon came back and started raiding the feral cat food feeder again...and as mentioned previously, thankfully, it's been more than 3 years since we've seen any coons.

I told (no, kindly asked!) my wife to count to 30 and then open the backdoor to the deck where the coon was heads down in the cat feeder.

I slipped out the frontdoor with the 12 gauge and went around to the side of the house to wait in ambush...27...28...29...30...

It came running around the corner of the house and then paused to look back to see if my wife was following...then it saw me and took off running again, and that critter was fast!

Homeowner: 1
Raiding Coon: 0

I hope that you remembered to cry afterwards.

 

[Hay Dude]

Coon came back and started raiding the feral cat food feeder again...and as mentioned previously, thankfully, it's been more than 3 years since we've seen any coons.

I told (no, kindly asked!) my wife to count to 30 and then open the backdoor to the deck where the coon was heads down in the cat feeder.

I slipped out the frontdoor with the 12 gauge and went around to the side of the house to wait in ambush...27...28...29...30...

It came running around the corner of the house and then paused to look back to see if my wife was following...then it saw me and took off running again, and that critter was fast!

Homeowner: 1
Raiding Coon: 0

You could always call some coon hunters, but they might sleep in your bed.

 

[drssg]

Coon came back and started raiding the feral cat food feeder again...and as mentioned previously, thankfully, it's been more than 3 years since we've seen any coons.

I told (no, kindly asked!) my wife to count to 30 and then open the backdoor to the deck where the coon was heads down in the cat feeder.

I slipped out the frontdoor with the 12 gauge and went around to the side of the house to wait in ambush...27...28...29...30...

It came running around the corner of the house and then paused to look back to see if my wife was following...then it saw me and took off running again, and that critter was fast!

Homeowner: 1
Raiding Coon: 0

That story reminds me of a co-worker that put out a bird feeder and then shot the birds that weren't the species that he liked.

 

[WinterDeere]

That story reminds me of a co-worker that put out a bird feeder and then shot the birds that weren't the species that he liked.

Back in high school, I ended up at a house party thrown by three teenage girls whose parents had gone away for a week, and left them home alone. I'm standing in the kitchen swilling whatever crappy beer we managed to get, reading the list of chores their mother had left stuck to the kitchen cabinet before going away, and one of them was "shoot crows off rear deck".

 

[drssg]

Back in high school, I ended up at a house party thrown by three teenage girls whose parents had gone away for a week, and left them home alone. I'm standing in the kitchen swilling whatever crappy beer we managed to get, reading the list of chores their mother had left stuck to the kitchen cabinet before going away, and one of them was "shoot crows off rear deck".

I am aghast! Consuming alcohol is illegal until you are 21. What kind of horrible delinquent were you?

 

[Jstpssng]

That story reminds me of a co-worker that put out a bird feeder and then shot the birds that weren't the species that he liked.

My father had a nerf gun which he used to shoot at the window next to the bird feeder, to scare off one species which otherwise chased off all of the other birds.

 

[mllud]

I had to tell my wife that feeding cats on the back porch draws unwanted critters. She continued until meeting a racoon at the back door. I quietly enjoyed the moment until she told me that I needed to shoot it.
The few good nature lovers feeding bears are causing bears to be put down.
If there is nothing to eat they will move on.

 

[dodge man]

Thanks for clarifying that Sig. I wasn’t sure if the trespassing raccoon hunters were in your bed sleeping, their dogs, or the racoons themselves were in your bed. Either way I had an image of a violent but funny encounter.

 

[WinterDeere]

I am aghast! Consuming alcohol is illegal until you are 21. What kind of horrible delinquent were you?

Enough of one, that if my too-good son ever manages to get into some mischeif, I'm going to have to resist a natural inclination to give him an atta-boy, instead of punishing him.

 

[masseyrider]

Enough of one, that if my too-good son ever manages to get into some mischeif, I'm going to have to resist a natural inclination to give him an atta-boy, instead of punishing him.

I came home from a weekend of debauchery in high school to find out the girl I had spent the weekend with, her mother had called my mother.
As my mother was reading me the riot act my father, a concentration camp survivor, all around tough guy that nobody dared mess with is standing behind her winking and giving me the thumbs up.
I started to smile and this just enraged my mother.
As she turned around and saw my father's actions she just clammed up and walked away shaking her head.
Nothing more was ever said.
The girl ended up married to a church minister.

 

[Sigarms]

I had to tell my wife that feeding cats on the back porch draws unwanted critters. She continued until meeting a racoon at the back door. I quietly enjoyed the moment until she told me that I needed to shoot it.
The few good nature lovers feeding bears are causing bears to be put down.
If there is nothing to eat they will move on.

I'm blessed in the fact that my wife is smarter and a better person than myself. Before I take a firearm outside to dispose of a critter, generally we talk about the situation first (although my wife and I are very different people, we have the same core values).

If you told you wife feeding cats on the back porch draws unwanted critters but she didn't head your advice, and then draws unwanted critters she doesn't like that you warned her about, well, if it were my wife, I'd tell her to shoot the critters herself.

Doesn't sound like your wife has much common sense.