my nightly visitors

I just thought I would post a picture of one (of the 8) visitors last night. This is one of the small ones. Sorry the picture is blurry but I took it through a secrutity screen door. I was only about 6ft away, but inside of course. They are really cute but mean and very messy. There was only maybe 1 tablespoon of food left in one of my feral cats dishes that I didn't pick up before dark last night. I just got home about 5 minutes earlier so I didn't have a chance to pick it up yet.

Aw, Rocky!
Cute...just be careful!

Awww lovely exotic night visitors - I just get hedghogs.

Cute but creepy.

We get racoons too. My parents get regular racoon visiters and also have a couple skunks living under the deck....sounds terrible, but in 10 years nobody has ever been sprayed except one cat (and only once...I'm sure it was his fault and he learned his lesson). They actually just come out at night, chill in the yard and will get into garbage if it's left out (so my parents have a garbage bin to prevent this).

Originally Posted by flisssweetpea

Awww lovely exotic night visitors - I just get hedghogs.

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(Our only wild animals are squirrels and bunnies.)

Cute! We have 'coons, 'possums, squirrels, rabbits, deer, and the occasional skunk too! Oh, and I forgot, armidillos!

We also have skunks, possums, and the ocasional deer besides the raccoons. One of the possums that I seen the other night was huge. It woke me up trying to break in the house. I thought it was a raccoon or one of my feral cats until I opened the door and seen it. Not incuding the tail it was longer than my cats and probably 3 times as fat. I don't like them at all. I tried to scare it away and it just looked at me like "you want me to move?". Princess walked to the door and growled and the thing took off like a shot. It's not afraid of me but a 13lb cat terrifies it.

The squirrels here can be evil sometimes. We've had one that got mad because we were sitting outside on afternoon and it climbed up a tree and started knocking apples off the tree on our heads. One even went up the tree and peed on someone.

All I have to say is luckily we haven't had any trouble with skunks.

The raccoons have went in a neighbors house through a doggy door but other than making a mess and stealing a container of catfood (that was stored in an airtight container in a plastic tub about 4ft off the ground) we haven't had to much trouble. I still want them to stay away because I'm afraid they will hurt my feral cats.

We put out table scraps, supplemented with Old Roy, and get all kinds of critters, such as coons, skunks, possums, foxes, (red & grey) and feral cats, and on rare occasion, have seen mixed groupings at the dish. I guess when food is there, they aren't interested in eating each other.

What is interesting, and I have never seen this on any of the animal shows, either, is the way a strange coon will become part of the "group". He will back up to the food dish, slowly, taking stabs and nips from the established families, until he is at the dish, and will then reach around behind him to get a "handful" of food, and eat it, and slowly turn around, still taking nips from the others, until he is fully facing the dish, at which time he is a full-fledged "member" of the group !

I do not allow my inside cats to mingle with the "outside" critters, but one night, while carrying Tico back to her "home", the garage, she ripped clear of my grasp and attacked a red fox at the dish, who puffed up about three times the size of an ordinary fox, and I had to run and grab her before she jumped him. Normally extremely wary, the Red was so occupied with the threat of Tico, he didn't even see me until I grabbed Tico up, taking some punctures myself, but holding on to her.

Leonard.

I once knew of a woman how had to have 27 of these cuties trapped and relocated.They were attracted to her cat food and the next thing she knew she had families of racoons visiting at all hours of the day! Beleive it or not she had grown very attached to them.I remember seeing something very similar on animal planet once too.

The Racoons sometimes are naughty! ... but cute!

I used to have raccoons visit too. They were drawn to the cat food outside for the feral cats. My guys could look at them through the screen door and were curious. The raccoons just ignored them.

Years ago when I lived in the Niagara area of Ontario my cats had a cat door that they could go in and out of. In the middle of one night I heard a loud crunching sound from their food dishes and thought, 'now that doesn't sound like one of the cats'. I carefully got up and went to investigate. I turned on one of the lights and saw this big opossum blinking at me. He looked, and then turned back to the cat food dish. I took a towel and started to wave it at him and he very reluctantly turned and ambled back to the cat door, stopping several times to look at me and then back at the dish, as if to say 'it ireally is very good. I would like to eat some more, if it wouldn't be too much trouble". He finally went back out the cat door and ambled down the steps from the porch. I took dish of food and put it outside at the bottom of the porch. I saw him a few times after that, and the last time I saw him he looked unwell. I did call the vet to ask if my cats were at risk of catching anything from him, and the vet said that there was a lot of canine distemper going through the opossums locally and that is probably what he had. I never saw him after that but I did get a very grainy photograph that I will try and hunt down. I haven't thought of him in years.

Kathryn

Originally Posted by KittenKrazy

Cute! We have 'coons, 'possums, squirrels, rabbits, deer, and the occasional skunk too! Oh, and I forgot, armidillos!

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Are armadillos living things? I thought they were just dead things someone put in the road.

Originally Posted by captiva

Are armadillos living things? I thought they were just dead things someone put in the road.

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Evertime I hear armadillo now I think of that Friends episode when Ross is dressed as "the holiday armadillo".

How about that! When Sasha was 1, his mama SiSi --our brave and fearless Queen of the House--bit a Raccoon in defense of her kitten when they came too close to the house. SiSi had a chipped ear after that, she didn't even know or care she was bleeding. All for Sashie! She was never sick a day in her life and thank goodness her rabies shot was current. They used to come up on my front porch and watch tv thrugh the window, standing on hind legs.

We have coyotes (tons) , a cougar, a bear, brush bunnies, raccoons, skunk, and red fox.

Originally Posted by sashacat421

How about that! When Sasha was 1, his mama SiSi --our brave and fearless Queen of the House--bit a Raccoon in defense of her kitten when they came too close to the house. SiSi had a chipped ear after that, she didn't even know or care she was bleeding. All for Sashie! She was never sick a day in her life and thank goodness her rabies shot was current. They used to come up on my front porch and watch tv thrugh the window, standing on hind legs.

We have coyotes (tons)

, a cougar, a bear, brush bunnies, raccoons, skunk, and red fox.

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What a brave mama kitty!!! It's amazing what a mama kitty will do for her babies.

It must have been so cute to see the raccoons watching TV.

There was a place I used to go, and late at night the raccoons would come out. They were fairly friendly.
They loved junk food.
We had snickers bars available at the place and would break them into pieces and they would come close enough to grab them and run.
They were soooo cute!!
We had names like "Rocky Raccoon" and others.

Great picture. I grew up with all sorts of critter at my parents place in the country. Haven't seen many in the suburb that I live in now except once when I came face to face with the biggest raccoon that was living under my deck. Scared the dickens out of me. Luckily I had the hose in my hand and sprayed him in the face until he scampered away. He was a very discriminating raccoon too. He would go in our garbage, claw one little line and take the gourmet portions leaving them mundane. Would only eat the imported goat cheese, lamb bones etc. My chef husband was sort of proud of him for being so discriminating. I on the other hand got better trash cans.

Tricia

Originally Posted by pjk5900

There was a place I used to go, and late at night the raccoons would come out. They were fairly friendly.
They loved junk food.
We had snickers bars available at the place and would break them into pieces and they would come close enough to grab them and run.
They were soooo cute!!
We had names like "Rocky Raccoon" and others.

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Our raccons are fairly used to people but they still won't get that close. I kind of like it that way especially this time of year. When the mom raccoons start bringing their babies with them looking for food it gets pretty dangerous. I was going to run outside to grab something of the patio last year and a mom and her 2 babies were there. I didn't notice them when I first opened the door. Normally if they hear the door they run but they didn't this time. I thought the mom was going to attack me. Now I'm pretty cautious. I will bang on the door before I open it and make lots of noise when I'm outside at night.

aww what animal is that??
it looks so cute!