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Past Time BearsI just knew you would love to see this.
Lynette
Newcastle, OntarioHi Sue Ann,
What a cutie! We used to have a pair that lived in a culvert at the bottom of our street. We dubbed them Martha and Henry and boy, if we had eaten chicken for dinner, we could always count on a visit from them We bungee corded our garbage can lid on (rubbermaid one) and Martha would sit on top and hold up one side of the lid so Henry could get at the garbage! Nobody said they were stupid! :crackup:
hugs,
Brenda
Little Bear GuyLOL good one Shelli will love it.
You know Brenda I had Friends who did the same thing with the bungee cord, they came out the next morning and found the poor thing with one of the hooks in it's head. I guess when he unsnapped it it caught him right between the eyes. They felt awful about it , but they really didn't have any other choice.
hugs
Shane
Newcastle, OntarioShane,
That's too bad - I'd feel awful if we actually hurt one, but what else can you do?
One night hubby smacked one of the racoons on the butt with a broom. He had his head in the garbage can as the bungee cord was on the lid. The racoon backpeddaled to the end of the yard, before he managed to get out of the can. Hubby picked up the can and went to put it back onto he patio and the raccoon beat him to the patio! There was definitely something in there he liked and wasnt' about to give up :crackup:
hugs,
Brenda
Swan Valley BearsToo cute. Shane, ewww, poor racoon. We had a pool where we lived before and the racoons would come at night and have a swim in the pool.
WHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????
I have been betrayed by one I used to call "friend." Oh, the heartache. I shall mourn our lost relationship for an eternity, Sue Ann. The rest of you suck, too. Raccoons are NOT "cute." Blasphemy!!!
Lest you people forget -- and I caution you! Do NOT let your guards down!! -- THIS is the reality behind the mask:
Spawn of Satan... yes they are.
I will somehow find the courage to someday leave my house, for I fear these beady-eyed demons await me around every corner. Struggling against a paralyzing, life-altering, renewed case of post traumatic stress, I will endeavor to continue my life as I once knew it. With, of course, the help of an intensive course of therapy, which will likely bankrupt me as I attempt to heal my damaged soul.
Wish me well, comrades. Wish me well.
We do not like raccoons. There was a litter of kittens a stray cat had right under our porch that we were trying to catch, along with the mother. Dale found them all decapitated when the raccoons decided to eat them. One poor kitty escaped, the rest were eaten...all but the skulls. My poor husband called me actually in tears about that....he's 6'1" and 265 lbs. He has such a soft heart. They have cornered my 19 year old cat several times trying to kill him, luckily we were there in time. We've blocked off an area where the cats can sleep without fearing for their lives. I agree they are cute in pictures but they are terrible predators. I hate any animal to suffer pain, even raccoons, but I will defend my pets against them any way I have to!!! I wish I could get that poor kitty to sleep in the house but he refuses to, so we do what we need to do to keep him safe! Beware....cute is not always nice!
Busser BearsRacoons as well as chipmonks...God just dressed them too cutely! But chipmonks when they come INTO my domicile-inside my walls-then all bets are off and it's goodbye varments!!!
hugs,
Leeann Krikau
Busser Bears
Newcastle, OntarioSusie,
I've lived in close proximity of raccoons my entire life, and they have never bothered any of our cats. That's just awful that they would do that to kittens! Our cats used to sit on the back deck and watch the raccoons raid the garbage, and they just ignored each other. Maybe our "town" raccoons were more docile than country ones? Now Fishers are another story - they're just vicious.
hugs,
Brenda
Susie
I knew there was a reason we got along. You are my best friend. Sue Ann, are you listening???
(You do realize I'm kidding, Texas, right? Not about Susie -- she rocks for sure. I adore you, Sue Ann; you're my favorite Past Time!! Just wanted to be sure to put that in writing in case anyone reads this in 10 years and thinks, Dang, That Shelli is unforgiving.)
Posts: 1,836Susie,
Now Fishers are another story - they're just vicious.hugs,
Brenda
Ok, now wait just a minute...what's wrong with us Fishers???! HUH??!!
("technically" I'm Catherwood-Fisher :crackup: :crackup: ) AND I had no idea there was a little weasely looking thing out there called a "Fisher"! I had to google it. Yuck, they sound nasty! I thought this was especially yucky: Fishers are also known for one of their calls, which is often said to sound like a child screaming, and can be mistaken for someone in dire need of help. Ewww...creepy!
:hug:
~Chrissi
Newcastle, Ontario
Chrissi,
FYI - they are not "LITTLE weasly things", some of them are freaking huge! We saw two in a conservation area a couple of years ago and they were the size of dogs. They've even been known to go after horses! They managed to clean out an entire town of outdoor cats, a few year back. I do not like Fishers (except you, of course!) :crackup:
hugs,
Brenda
Past Time Bears
I knew there was a reason we got along. You are my best friend. Sue Ann, are you listening???
(You do realize I'm kidding, Texas, right? Not about Susie -- she rocks for sure. I adore you, Sue Ann; you're my favorite Past Time!! Just wanted to be sure to put that in writing in case anyone reads this in 10 years and thinks, Dang, That Shelli is unforgiving.)
Of course I know you're teasing, Shelli . . . just as I was when I put up that photo! 
Quy will be 
if we're still here 10 years from now.
I have lived in Lompoc for 23 years and never had a problem with the raccoons going after our cats that I KNOW of until the past several years. When summer hits and there is less food for them they get hungry and will eat anything they can get. We take in the cat food at night to keep away the skunks, raccoons and the possums. We live one block away from the hills so we see a lot of wildlife. We had SEVEN baby skunks on our deck once when we forgot to take in the food. They were tiny, standing in the bowls and NOT afraid of us. Cute but...well...you know. Not to mention the raccoons and skunks carry rabies and other disgusting things. Also, raccoon poop has a parasite in it that can make other animals and even children very sick. If memory serves me a small child died (possibly Santa Barbara?) and they traced it to raccoon poop in the sandbox where he played. One more reason to keep them away from your house. By the way, their poop resembles granola. So...there is your YUCK for the day!! :doh:
Newcastle, OntarioSusie,
One of my pet peeves is people who feed wildlife, especially in summer, when food tends to be plentiful. You are just asking for trouble when you go that route.
We have friends that live near the Niagara escarpment and one of their neighbours fed everything - chipmunks, squirrels, skunks, raccoons etc. One day when our friends were visiting them for tea, she commented that she had seen a strange snake under her bushes - my friends hubby checked it out and it turned out to be a Mississauga Rattle snake! She had created the perfect environment for it - she had a backyard pond, shade, and she was feeding small animals, so they were plentiful! They had to have it removed by the ministry as they are quite rare and protected. There were very lucky that a pet or a human wasnt bitten, if they had accidently disturbed it.
My niece's neighbour insisted on feeding the squirrels, until they chewed through the wires on her car engine and the car caught fire and literally burned up! Nasty way to learn a lesson :crackup: !
We rented a cottage a couple of summers ago, and the first night we had a "group" of raccoons on the porch. Hubby opend the door to shoo them away, and they tried to come inside. We learned the owner of the cottage cooked pasta for them every night she was there - it nearly ruined our week as we could not get rid of them and they were getting nasty cuz we wouldn't feed them!
Nature is a wonderful thing, but you just create problems by upsetting their instincts and providing them with food. They're smart - they can find their own food! Birds are the one thing we will feed in the winter.
hugs,
Brenda
Busser BearsWe feed the birds, several feeding stations at our home...and it's also like ringing the dinner bell for the red tailed hawks. Fortunately, we really like the hawks.
I know a lot of you are going euwwww and squimish at the thought, but those of you that know me, know that I am a bit "twisted"! lol
I could tell you stories about the hawks eating the pigeons when I lived in Ohio!!
hugs,
Leeann Krikau
Busser Bears
Oh Brenda, I agree with you about not feeding the wildlife. My husband and I try to put the cat food in before it gets dark. Occasionally we come home and we're too late, the food is gone and it just means they will come back again. We were in Yosemite driving through when we stopped to use the restroom. I was trying to get out to go back to the car and the biggest coyote I've ever seen was waiting outside for me. I couldn't get to the car until Dale scared him away and it wasn't easy to do that. All from people feeding them. A bunch of tourists were giving their children food to feed him as we were leaving and we drove up and explained how dangerous that was. Who knows if they understood what we were trying to tell them... Bad for the animals, bad for people. I know they have trouble with bears in Tahoe because of that too. We had a cat door that only opened one way so they could get off the deck but the raccoons figured out how to grab it and pull it up so they could get in. So...goodbye cat door! Now they're stuck inside all night but at least they're safe!
Newcastle, OntarioLeeann,
I'd borrow a couple of your red tailed hawks, if I thought they'd get rid of a few of our squirrels :crackup:! Messy, noisy, annoying little critters. If they continue to dig holes or eat one more bulb out of my garden, they's better look out 
We have a fair number of hawks, but they are the smaller ones and you're right - they figure out where the bird feeders are pretty fast, and they aren't looking for bird seed! I actually saw one go after a squirrel last year, but the squirrel was too fast. He spent the next hour scoldiing everything in site! It's sad when the hawks go after the other birds but they have to eat too, and nature has provided a way to keep nature in balance. At least they only eat for survival and don't kill for sport, like humans do!
Susie,
I wish they would teach kids in school about admiring wildlife from afar. Then maybe the kids could convince the silly parents not to feed the animals. It destroys the natural fear they have of us, and that's when the problems start. We have quite a few coyotes and foxes around here and we are just a block or two from the country - they come into town fairly regularly, so I keep our cats indoors since we moved here. Your cats are probably safer inside at night, too. They are no match for animals of that size. I wish I could catproof our back yard so I could let them outside in the daytime. One is fat and I think I could keep him in the yard with no difficulty, but the other one is like Houdini and it just wouldn't work for him and I'm not letting one out and keeping one in - that's not fair.
hugs,
Brenda
Busser BearsBrenda, we have horrid little red squirrels here. My husband has been taking shots at them with his pellet gun and hitting the bird feeder instead. The little buggers have been tearing apart the feeds by chewing them up! They are cute, but terribly destructive. He bought a brand new tube feeder with the stems that fall down/spring loaded when they attempt to land on them. He just put it up last night and I can't WAIT to see a squirrel fall down off of it!
You don't have hawks up there? Strange, thought they were all over the continent. If I had the time, I'd love to be a falconer. I do admire them.
hugs,
Leeann Krikau
Busser Bears
Crikey,
You all make me very glad that I live in boring old Blighty - the next time my mum calls me to moan about the badger digging up her lawn, I shall relay to her all your hideous tales of dangerous and exotic wildlife!!
Hugs,
Chris
Tami Eveslage Original Teddy BearsWe feed the birds, several feeding stations at our home...and it's also like ringing the dinner bell for the red tailed hawks. Fortunately, we really like the hawks.
I know a lot of you are going euwwww and squimish at the thought, but those of you that know me, know that I am a bit "twisted"! lol
I could tell you stories about the hawks eating the pigeons when I lived in Ohio!!
hugs,
Leeann Krikau
Busser Bears
OOH I love the red tailed hawks!!! There is a nest in the trees at the back of our property, so we see them in action a lot!! Beautiful birds!
Shelli, I guess I missed another story somewhere. What happened to evoke the racoon hating?
Newcastle, OntarioLeeann,
We do have hawks, even Red Tailed ones, but they stick to the country I think, as I've never seen one in town. We have some smaller hawks (unfortunately not big enough to eat squirrels) that come into town and we used to have northern shrikes, when we lived up north. You could tell when a shrike was around as the little birds would shriek and make noise to warn the other birds.
AH! Red Squirrels - now they are incredibly smart! I wish your husband well, because they should figure out how to get around the new feeder in no time! :crackup: We have them here as well and I don't mind them as much, even though they are the noisiest, with all their chatter. I think it's because we raised one from a tiny, tiny baby to adulthood, before we let it go. That little thing was VERY clever and would go into my purse after granola bars etc. He also loved icecream and green grapes LOL! We also have gray squirrels (which are pretty) and the ones I really dislike - the black squirrels! They are the ones who dig up my garden and eat the bulbs. We are thinking of getting a motion detector sprinkler to keep them out of the yard. Hmmm - did I say I loved nature :crackup:
hugs,
Brenda
Newcastle, OntarioChristine,
OOOOOOh, I would love to see a badger! I know they can be nasty, but I'd love to see one up close. Are there lots of them or are they quite rare? I feel badly for you mum, if it's digging up her lawn - is it looking for bugs?
Skunks do the same thing here. They can make a real big mess of the lawn, with holes everywhere, but I bet the badger makes bigger ones. You must have skunks and raccoons and foxes and coyotes in England? It just makes life a little more interesting, having to match our brains against the wee buggers :crackup:
hugs,
Brenda
Newcastle, OntarioLeeann,
Check this out - Britain knows how to deal with squirrels! I guess that's why they don't have problems with them :)
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05 … rel-uk.php
hugs,
Brenda
