So Cute – But Not Here

Via Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

Via Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

I’m definitely of two minds about raccoons. On the one hand, I melt into a puddle when I see pictures like this. Awwww.

The other half of me has to deal with the problems they cause us when a whole family decides that our deck is a wonderful place to eat us out of house and home. Not only do they eat every single seed of any type in our feeders, they trash the feeders!  If we had raccoons who understood the concept of sharing, or eating without leaving the feeders needing to be replaced, we would welcome them.

We saw one of our long time friends at the store recently. He had a possum on his shoulder! It was really cute, and super affectionate. He had had the possum since he/she was a baby. He also told us he had a raccoon and a squirrel who both traveled with him and his wife, and were trained to walk on leashes! He also mentioned he had 7 deer…. Such a rich, full life!

We have a humane trap that we use on a regular basis after we have clear evidence of more raccoons. We bait it with apples or crackers and peanut butter. We have to be careful where we put the trap because they do everything they can to get out of the trap – of course – and have trashed our barbecue grill cover, plants in pots, etc.

When we catch one, we put the cage into the back of our truck and drive about 5 miles away, relocating the raccoon into a nice creek that flows under the road. Hopefully, this gives him/her another chance at a happy life, reunion with other relocated raccoons – far enough away that they don’t find their way back to us….