Posted by: Helen Philpot | August 29, 2007

Sh-shoot her..shoot her

raccoon

Today I saw a cute little raccoon in my backyard and my first instinct was to kill it, but that would require energy so I didn’t do anything. 

Posted in Uncategorized

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Responses

  1. Jacquie – I LOVE that story! Racoons, while they can be dangerous and carry disease, are incredible to watch! I love how they have to soak their food in water to eat. We had a baby racoon that was found by my cousin and I loved holding it or watching it’s little hands work . We kept it in a cage at night until it learned how to undo the lock by himself. They’re very smart!

    Thanks Helen and Margaret for your blog! I just discovered it today and I’m already telling all my friends about it! I think you’re doing a great job.

    Like

    By: Heather on October 31, 2008
    at 4:26 PM

  2. My sister turned me on to your blog.
    I really enjoy reading your ideas! Very funny….
    I’m looking forward reading your blog in December

    Clark

    Like

    By: Clark gayton on October 21, 2008
    at 2:41 PM

  3. Helen you are definately a bright spot on what has been a dark horizon. Talk about a picture is worth a thousand words!
    I get a real kick out of your musings.

    Best,
    Shirley

    Like

    By: Shirley on October 19, 2008
    at 3:58 PM

  4. In many areas raccoon populations carry endemic rabies. And if you keep poultry or other small animals, they love to snack on them. I hear they are very good pot roasted though.

    Like

    By: Don on October 18, 2008
    at 12:37 PM

  5. My cousins had a pet raccoon many years ago and he was a clever so and so! He would come through the back door, into the kitchen, open the bottom drawer of the kitchen cupboards, get some bread (from same kitchen drawer)….toddle down the hallway and onto the bathroom sink…hold on…it gets better!!! lol

    Then the clever thing would turn on the cold water tap…wash himself and the bread and eat the bread til all gone! He wasn’t smart enough to turn the tap off.

    Down the hallway and scooting outside again to be rounded up and put back in the barn…he gave us lots of entertainment and we learned at our peril not to interfere with his little bread performance…nasty claws!

    I didn’t know they were pests though….so kind of glad we don’t have any in the wild here in the UK where I now live. The raccoon I mentioned in my tale was resident in British Columbia, Canada.

    Again…love the blog!

    Like

    By: Jacquie on October 11, 2008
    at 1:31 AM

  6. well I for one will feel safe if SARAH was on duty.
    GO SARAH!!!

    Like

    By: grandma on October 10, 2008
    at 9:16 AM

  7. Raccoons are a problem if they decide to establish a latrine in one’s yard. They like to poop in the same place all the time. You don’t want that. They carry roundworm, you don’t want that either, especially if you like to use your yard. They also have fleas, that’s not so much fun either.

    Anyway, cayenne pepper. Spread the cayenne pepper out over the areas that the raccoons frequent and they should get the message. I’ve heard that rags soaked in ammonia work as well, but I’ve never tried that method.

    Having written all this, raccoons aren’t an endangered species, and if they’re in my living space, I would have no problems using more extreme methods of removal should the cayenne pepper and/or ammonia not work.

    Like

    By: Phil on October 9, 2008
    at 4:15 PM

  8. Please have some compassion. The raccoons are just trying to survive in a world completely dominated by humans. Their habitat is being destroyed, so we’re going to see them once in a while, as they adapt to ‘neighborhood’ life. A good solution would be ‘live, and let live’.

    Like

    By: Diane on October 9, 2008
    at 10:50 AM

  9. Sarah is a baracuda and other things, but she’s not stupid, she knows what she is doing. Biden is a slick bastard. I’ve watched him make a mess out of US Gov funded overseas broadcasting [esp Voice of America] so he can help his friends and take power trips. His friends have made a mess out of PBS over the last 15+ years. BTW, Racoons are neat animals and totally nocturnal. If you see one during the day, 90% chance it is sick, probably rabies. If you see one in daylight, shoot it. Rabies is nasty.

    I may not agree with you all the time but I totaly love your blog. You two are Grand Dames d’le Republic. I hope you keep doing it and that I somehow live long enough to keepreading it. My hat is off to you.

    Like

    By: BruceKen on October 9, 2008
    at 2:10 AM

  10. Helen, you are so funny! I love your honesty and sense of humor.
    Concerning the trouble with the raccoon; Maybe Ms. Palin could fly over your house and shoot ’em for ya. I heard she can shoot from a helicopter, but later this month she’ll be bringin’ out the broom.

    Like

    By: Mona on October 7, 2008
    at 6:57 PM

  11. I totally understand your thought. I live right in the city and have had three racoons in my yard this summer. They are bigger than my schnauzers and I am afraid of a big raccoon-schnauzer rumble which I fear the schnauzers would lose.

    Like

    By: Mark on October 7, 2008
    at 4:24 PM

  12. You GO, girl! I finally was able to laugh about this half-ass, half-frozen, sticky, sickeningly-sweet Alaskan popsicle who could oh-so-easily end up as president of these united states.

    Oh, and while raccoons are cute and obviously intelligent, they can carry some very nasty diseases (fatal to felines) and ferocious fleas. Even though I live downtown D.C. (a 1/4-mile north of the Capitol), we had three come though the basement cat door (there for a family of eight feral alley cats for whom we have no room upstairs) and we’re STILL battling the fleas three years later!

    We feed 72 feline friends every day, and during the night-time feed the raccoons will come up to eat alongside the cats, forcing us to stay with each feline colony until they’re done eating. So, raccoons have turned a 2- to 3-hour routine into a 4- to 5-hour (often frustrating, sometimes hilarious) chore. The poor guys’ habitat is being cleared and developed; they have no where else to go. With them also come ‘possums, the occasional red fox…hell, there was even a young adult deer on the corner of 7th and H NW (Chinatown) in front of the CVS last autumn!

    Like

    By: Kevin Garry on October 7, 2008
    at 12:47 AM

  13. Helen,
    I thought I had stumbled upon a conspiracy, or a Sarah Palin Moose hunt.
    Raccoons are only good for hunting with dogs.
    Alessia, When GOD creatures get into your attic, then tell me how wonderful they are. How sad and pathetic that you think looking is spelled without the g and with a ‘. Bad grammar is not an affectation.
    Now tell the truth. Are you a folksey Sarah Palin fan?

    Like

    By: Jonrbarr on October 6, 2008
    at 11:36 PM

  14. Animals, are God’s creatures, just as we are his.
    Nothing wrong with them, so what if they are lookin’ for food, why not just appreciate them for what they are and leave them be.

    Tara, you obviously don’t have an ounce of compassion, how sad and pathetic for you.

    Like

    By: Alessia on October 6, 2008
    at 11:17 PM

  15. Helen, I think you are my new favorite person. Seriously.

    Like

    By: Michelle on October 6, 2008
    at 10:25 PM

  16. You are hilarious. What a great since of humor!

    Like

    By: marviene on October 6, 2008
    at 9:32 PM

  17. It might have been Sara Palin….she loves to get into trash every now and then:)

    Like

    By: Jade on October 6, 2008
    at 11:47 AM

  18. Oh my goodness, i thought I stumbled onto your next Sarah Palin column 😉

    Like

    By: ratched on October 6, 2008
    at 10:00 AM

  19. oh my, I will definitely be coming back to your site! Those raccoons are a menance to society! Anyone who thinks they are “cute” just has never (a) lived in the country or (b) been outside camping

    Like

    By: Tara on October 5, 2008
    at 8:06 PM

  20. Why would you possibly want to kill a little raccoon?

    Like

    By: debkauz on October 5, 2008
    at 7:34 PM

  21. Hwaaughk Twuught!!!!!

    Like

    By: Margaret on September 17, 2007
    at 6:31 PM

  22. Good Luck!

    Like

    By: Helen on September 17, 2007
    at 6:28 PM

  23. Margaret,

    We think we might have figured it out. Replace desk with a slimmer sofa table. Gain back about a foot plus no desk chair allows sofa to come back allowing everything else to center up with fireplace.

    Also, found perfect “pear” yellow color for kitchen cabinets.

    – Helen

    Like

    By: Helen on September 16, 2007
    at 10:31 PM

  24. Oh, good Lord, I thought that was your neighbor, Hedda, in one of her many fur coats…Don’t Shoot, Dear!!!

    Like

    By: Helen on September 3, 2007
    at 8:41 PM


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