Raccoons, 'Possums And My Cat Spike!
Raccoons have no manners! They're
slobs and the one staring
at me didn't seem to really care about the niceties of eating.
Bits of dry cat food were soaking up water from where it
had been sloshed out of the water bowl.
The bag of food I'd laid on a table was now torn
open and about 10 pounds of cat chow was strewn
across the floor.
This particular
raccoon had come in through
the pet door into the garage and
was happily eating leftovers from my cat Spike's dinner bowl. He obviously
had no fear of me, because he kept eating
as I walked over to the work bench.
Even though he appeared to half tamed, I was trying to keep a little distance
between me and the raccoon.
Spike has a bed
in the garage, in the house
and on the deck. Whenever and wherever the mood strikes
him to take a nap, he's not very
far from a comfortable pillow. He has become adjusted
to seeing raccoons and possums enter his garage at all hours
of the night. Tonight he was sleeping
on the bed that used to be my work bench before he took it over. He was now peering over the side of
the cardboard
box that was his bed, at the raccoon that was making
a mess of his eating area.
I heard a noise from the outside of the door as
another animal entered the garage through
the pet door. This time it was a possum! This fella seemed to know his way around
for he immediately walked over to the food bowl and began staring
at the raccoon.
Each kept their eyes on each other, ignoring
Spike and me.
The raccoon won the staring contest for the possum casually backed up and
hid under a table at the corner of the garage. There he
remained until I left the garage. Spike got tired of the show and went outside
through his cat door.
The real name of this critter is opossum. But down here
in the south we just call it a 'possum. They are really, really fond of cat
food, but will eat almost anything; rodents, insects, frogs, road kill, grains
and fruits. 'Possums
are rather lazy, so if there is available food in a garbage can or cat food in
a garage they will find it.
While their appetites knows no bounds, they are cowards and will
rarely attack any animal bigger than them or any animal that might fight back,
including cats. Oddly enough Spike seems to get along with both the varmints
who have invaded our
garage.
We live in the city, but fairly close to wooded areas that
are homes to a variety of animals including, 'possums, raccoons, foxes, and
coyotes. Our city's growth
is slowly taking over the wild animal's habitat, making the aroma of a trash can
irresistible to critters who want a free lunch. As a result, raccoons and
'possums have no great fear of man! Don't leave a food source available to any
of these varmints because
they will find it sooner or later. If they can't find food in your back yard, they will just move
on.
I may have to try trapping
the animal, but that didn't work out very well last year. I used a gage-like
trap that is supposed to close
the entry way into the cage when the animal tries to eat the canned cat food in the
back of the cage. It's very humane. Of the five raccoons we had last year, none
were caught. I did catch Spike...twice. I've never accused him of being smart!
If you have a 'possum get into your house, the best
thing to do is to put a can of cat food just outside
the door and let the animal go to the food. Then slam the door shut! They may
scare you by hissing and snarling, but that's just their defensive mechanism. It's sort of
scary when they bare their fifty teeth, but more than likely if you back away, they'll never hurt you. One
good thing about confrontations with a 'possum is that they hardly ever get
rabies.
Nice interesting blog. It's nice to find out how different critters behave.
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