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Raccoon's last meal
bigcitybill
Member Posts: 4,911 ✭✭✭
This sad little animal ambled out of a three acre wooded area in downtown Arlington TX.
Lethargic, very old and seemingly completely blind. It was 1030am and overcast but broad daylight. As it walked along it seemed to be pawing the dirt for both something to eat and maybe to maintain balance.
The only thing I could think to do was bring the poor thing something to eat.
I fixed up a box with two hard-boiled eggs, salad with cherry tomatoes and cucumber, two breadsticks and some diced ham.
This was the biggest, oldest, grayest raccoon I've ever seen.
I saw it and fed it last Thursday.
Haven't seen it since.
Comments
good on you
maybe just me but as I got older i find it more difficult to dispatch some animals for just doing what nature programed them to do ( I still will but not as readily as in the past
I know they are disliked by many and rightly so but for the most part we feed ( well let them eat ) them and get along
two I can think of not so much many years ago we had wonder in the back yard middle of the day all disoriented
never seen one so confused I guess you could say so I helped on the rain bow bridge.
some years later but 20 yrs ago I had one I hauled off but a only a mile or so away ( lesson learned ) I think he was raiding our chickens a few days went by the chickens were all up in arms squawking so I went out sure enough he had acquired tase for chicken and he was working one over
I closed the door and said well I hope you had a great last meal and send him on his way with a shot from 22 pistol
they normally will eat the cat food or chicken feed we have for our cats and do not cause any harm . but that one wanted a chicken dinner .,.
but with the skunks hanging around the racoons don't seem to like the company and do not come around very often
Let's just say that some of us have a different point of view. We trapped enough to nearly fill the bed of Son's old S-10 and dumped them cause the fur isn't worth skinning. Raccoons are carriers of several nasty diseases and destructive nest predators.😕
Very kind of you , big city bill. I used to pick up fresh roadkill, skin them out and send out their hides to be tanned. I made a couple coonskin hats and a coonskin rug. they are fun animals to watch in the wild.
So is the so called human race, would say even more deadly than raccoons. It’s a thought.
Good for you for helping this poor animal.
I see a Big Fat Racoon every once in awhile on a game camera at a Deer feeder that is set to video and the Racoon has no tail at all and appears to maybe be a special needs type in the rear end when it walks. Suspect was born as a special needs type.
I usually do away with Racoons fast but not too long ago I kept seeing a one eyed Racoon at a deer feeder. I set a Havahart live trap at the feeder to thin out the varmits and when I caught him he only had one eye, the other was whited out.
Old one eye was mild mannered in the trap, not mean like some so I hauled him about 5 miles away and turned him loose, when he just ambled slowly out of the trap almost like a pet and he stopped and looked back I told him if he came back things would not go good next time. He came back in about 3 months and I kept my promise.
When the Racoons start getting overpopulated in my neck of the woods mainly due to furs not having any value due to PETA lovers protecting them, Racoon hunters are a dying breed, therefore mother nature starts taking over thinning them out, distemper, rabies, starvation and all kinds of diseases.
True story.
Hog farmer's where getting blamed for polluting streams due to waste holding pits
spilling into local streams. After further research it was the trash pandas pooping in the streams while foraging for food. This was in east NC.
Raccoon hunting is a dying sport, young folks can't hunt them with a smart phone.
I don’t think it’s blind, his eyes look mattery which leads me to think it’s sick, or got into a fight with another aniamal. If you feed it, it will be back. When you start finding thing destroyed in your yard you will wish you hadn’t feed him. I understand the logic of it being one of God creatures, but so are ticks, mosquitos and rats.
It was a kind juster though.
Racoon=DRT
I saved a baby opossum once.... Raised him till he was a Big Fat male. Never saw him again. My dear friend and retired vet wasn't very fond of those critters, but Dr Bob told me I had a special place with God for helping His creatures.
Thank you @bigcitybill ❤️🙏
"Independence Now, Independence Forever."
John Adams
I saw no good reason to do anything other than what I did.
Letting that obviously aging and ailing animal live neither picked my pocket nor broke my leg.
We never dump food in our garbage can. 1. It stinks. 2. In the summer, it draws flies. We always take it out to the edge of our yard and dump it there. So I suppose we've been supporting lots of wildlife. For as little as I've noticed, it always seems to be gone the next morning.
"So is the so called human race, would say even more deadly than raccoons. It’s a thought."
I'm not going to give my suggestion for handling THAT issue.
I have an idea you're in like-minded company, @Mobuck .
Let 'er rip!
Distemper is one of the symptoms of a Racoon acting strange in daytime, watery eyes.
I've seen them eventually just set by the side of a road with what seems like weak eyesight not caring if they get run over by a vehicle.
Butchdog3 wrote:
Raccoon hunting is a dying sport, young folks can't hunt them with a smart phone.
This reminds me.
I seen on TV few days ago the Oklahoma wildlife dept is now having classes trying to get people interested in hunting and teaching them to hunt use of VIRTUAL REALITY GOGGLES. (seen lots of smart phones laying on the table while they were getting their training wearing the goggles.
Also seen a guy on this same show sometime back showing suggestions to new hunters how to pack a daypack (backpack) for a day of deer hunting. He suggested that take some trash bags and zip lock bags a take more out of the woods than what you pack in. For example if you have to defecate (do a #2) in the woods place the toilet paper and the poop in a zip lock bag, do not litter the woods. He indicated to use camo toilet paper so as to not be showing flashing white like a deer tail and to hang up lots of Blaze Orange on the bushes first. I'm thinking the guy needs to show them how to use leaves, sticks and rocks as toilet paper so as to have more room in their backpack for the poop.
Davey Crockett and Smokey the Bear would be proud of them people doing the training now days. (yea sure)
Yep, modern times.
Nothing surprises me now days.
bigcitybill: You did the right thing! The day of your post I encountered a raccoon with similar problems. Seemingly blind and having difficulty but otherwise in good condition. The most humane thing to do was with a .22 and I've done that many times. But this time I couldn't do it so I've tried to help him knowing it was in vain. He seems to trust me but he is fading away.
Good for you I probably would have done the same thing.😊