Cats and Raccoons

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 15:11:16 GMT, Kiran wrote:

Ted Davis wrote:

: On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 07:08:41 GMT, Kiran wrote:
:
: I have decided not to feed her outside from now on, because she
: scatters crumbs around and those smells can attract unwelcome guests.
:
: The standard solution is a platform on a three-foot center post, with
: aluminum skirting around the rim - cats can jump, and so can reach the
: food, but coons can't jump snd so can't.

Thanks. The price of edcating an ignorant person is more questions:
What is center post? Wouldn't any 3' high table do?
Also, what is aluminum skirting, do you simply mean Al-foil and I cover
the surface with it?


Typically, these things are built on a 4x4 post sunk into the ground
(usually in concrete), and consist of a flat top about two to three
feet square mounted on top of the post (this is a high stress
connection - something like four shelf brackets would be needed).
Aluminum sheeting, such as is used for roof flashing, perhaps 18
inches wide, is wrapped around the edge so that the overall effect is
a smooth - unclimbable - vertical metal surface beginning about a foot
and a half from the ground and extending to the top. The skirt
prevents the coon from grabbing the edge and pushing off from the post
to climb over. You could use a used single leg table if it is weather
resistant or under cover.

One example is at http://www.thewildones.net/raccoons.htm.

--
T.E.D. )
SPAM filter: Messages to this address *must* contain "T.E.D."
somewhere in the body or they will be automatically rejected.

I had a tom cat who came with a trailer I rented courtesy of the previous
tenant. Mr T. would tangle with anything and it wasn't uncommon for me to
find 6 lb river rats on my porch a couple times a week. Later he then moved
up to coons. He never came out on the winning end of the fight and got tore
up pretty good. I never would have believed he was fighting a coon except
my neighbor caught him at it. He spent the better part of a summer penned
up on my porch trying to get him healed up. In the end it was a tangle with
a coon that did him in. I no sooner got him patched up and he escaped out
off the porch and came home two days later a total mess.

I would cound myself lucky that your cat has common sense because Mr T sure
never did.

Celeste




"Kiran" wrote in message
...
My cat is an indoors/outdoors cat. Ever since winters ended, she has
insisted on sleeping in the porch. She also prefers not to use the
litter-box and like to go outdoors. She has never strayed beyond our
lawn: one neighbor has a loud dog, the other one loud workmen and
machinery 8 hours a day; and those are the two outlets. :-) Frankly she
just prefers to be in our porch and lawn to anywheer else including our
house. The whole arrangement has been safe. While we await winters and
inevitable indoor life, we have even started feeding her on the porch.

OK, this neighborhood has a few raccoons as well, probably a mother
with a few kids. I had seen them a few rare times prowling a neighbor's
lawn, and besides scrounging for food they have not harmed or attacked
anyone. So far I had not even seen them on my property.

This evening a big surprise. I was dozing on one patio chair and the
cat on the other, when I woke up to some noise. A raccoon had finished
the few morsels of food the cat had left and was drinking out of her
bowl. He paid no attention to the cat. She kept dozing as well---some
alert hunter I have!

I was in some panic and got up, which startled the raccoon who ran
away. I picked up the cat, who didn't know what happened, and brought
her in along with her feeding bowls. In about 15 minutes I saw the
reccoon reappear on the porch, sniffing the floor for food crumbs. To
my amazement he also sniffed the chair on which the cat had been lying.
This time I decided to chase him away real good, with a broom, and he
ran off into shadows.

A few hours later, my cat was restless to go out again. I decided to
allow her but only supervised, ie, she can stay as long as I am there
too. As soon as she got out, she started sniffing the feeding area
where the raccoon had been.

This was the only (indirect) interaction between them---to sniff where
the other had been, while the other was absent.

I have decided not to feed her outside from now on, because she
scatters crumbs around and those smells can attract unwelcome guests.

However, I would be curious to know if those raccoons pose a real
threat to my cat? I have never heard of them to hurt any pet in this
area and he certainly showed no interest in the cat today. However, as
with people, fights can start by misunderstanding: the cat may growl to
defend her turf, which the mother raccoon could interpret as threat to
her kitten, etc. I am only speculating, I have no experience with
wildlife, and would like to hear what the experienced people think.

Kiran

In article , Kiran Nobody wrote:
My cat is an indoors/outdoors cat. Ever since winters ended, she has
insisted on sleeping in the porch. She also prefers not to use the
litter-box and like to go outdoors. She has never strayed beyond our
lawn: one neighbor has a loud dog, the other one loud workmen and
machinery 8 hours a day; and those are the two outlets. :-) Frankly she
just prefers to be in our porch and lawn to anywheer else including our
house. The whole arrangement has been safe. While we await winters and
inevitable indoor life, we have even started feeding her on the porch.

OK, this neighborhood has a few raccoons as well, probably a mother
with a few kids. I had seen them a few rare times prowling a neighbor's
lawn, and besides scrounging for food they have not harmed or attacked
anyone. So far I had not even seen them on my property.

This evening a big surprise. I was dozing on one patio chair and the
cat on the other, when I woke up to some noise. A raccoon had finished
the few morsels of food the cat had left and was drinking out of her
bowl. He paid no attention to the cat. She kept dozing as well---some
alert hunter I have!

I was in some panic and got up, which startled the raccoon who ran
away. I picked up the cat, who didn't know what happened, and brought
her in along with her feeding bowls. In about 15 minutes I saw the
reccoon reappear on the porch, sniffing the floor for food crumbs. To
my amazement he also sniffed the chair on which the cat had been lying.
This time I decided to chase him away real good, with a broom, and he
ran off into shadows.

A few hours later, my cat was restless to go out again. I decided to
allow her but only supervised, ie, she can stay as long as I am there
too. As soon as she got out, she started sniffing the feeding area
where the raccoon had been.

This was the only (indirect) interaction between them---to sniff where
the other had been, while the other was absent.

I have decided not to feed her outside from now on, because she
scatters crumbs around and those smells can attract unwelcome guests.

However, I would be curious to know if those raccoons pose a real
threat to my cat? I have never heard of them to hurt any pet in this
area and he certainly showed no interest in the cat today. However, as
with people, fights can start by misunderstanding: the cat may growl to
defend her turf, which the mother raccoon could interpret as threat to
her kitten, etc. I am only speculating, I have no experience with
wildlife, and would like to hear what the experienced people think.

Kiran

Hi

Raccoons are interesting creatures. I used to live in Northern
California in a semi-urban area. One evening I fell asleep on
the couch watching TV with the front door open and when I woke
up there were 3 of the little darlings wandering around in my
living room. I sat up and said "Hi" to them in a calm voice and
they all sat up and looked at me like "????" where'd you come from?"
After a few seconds they calmly lined up and marched back out the
door without any problems.

On the other hand and on the other side of the country...

A good friend of mine's dogs got into it with a raccoon in thier
yard. She and her son broke the quarrel up and wound up having to shoot
the raccoon, because it was unusually aggressive and wouldn't run off
or run up a tree like raccoons would normally do. The dogs were severely
damaged in the fight as well, but the worst part was the series of shots
that they both needed to undergo when the raccoon turned out to have
been rabid. They didn't even get bitten, they just cleaned up the mess
after the local animal control office gave them bogus instructions.

It's fortunate that they took the carcass in for inspection instead
of simply dumping it like they were instructed to do.

Be careful


Claude

Ted Davis wrote:

: One example is at http://www.thewildones.net/raccoons.htm.

Thanks, it is great! I have no mechanical sense and can't figure out
the purpose of skirting (how could the raccoon get in if it wasn't
there?), but I am glad it works. Lovely pictures. How much tech savvy
does it take to set up such a camera?

On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 00:13:12 GMT, Kiran wrote:

Ted Davis wrote:

: One example is at http://www.thewildones.net/raccoons.htm.

Thanks, it is great! I have no mechanical sense and can't figure out
the purpose of skirting (how could the raccoon get in if it wasn't
there?), but I am glad it works. Lovely pictures. How much tech savvy
does it take to set up such a camera?

Such things can be bought as a package - they are common for
photographing wildlife. I sometimes think about buying one, but then
I remember that I seldom see the animals in the same place and I don't
plan on baiting them. Aside from the birds and small vermin, I get
possums, coons, deer, rabbits, and the occasional squirrel - there are
coyotes and armadillos in the area.

--
T.E.D. )

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 13:11:02 -0500, "Karin Gillette"
wrote:

Our cat Neko used to go outside nearly every evening. When it got dark out
she would go to the door and meow until my hubby let her out. After she got
bite he decided to keep her in. (YEAH!!!) It took a few weeks for her to
understand that she was never going out except in her travel taxi. Your cat
will adapt too. You are the owner, you are the caregiver it is up to YOU to
protect your cat.

KEEP IT INSIDE!!!! 24/7

We have two boxes to clean, but I would rather clean to boxes than to have a
sick cat or worse a dead one.

"Kiran" wrote in message
...
Richard Underwood wrote:

: As for your cat "preferring to go outdoors" she does not have a
: preference, you just dont want to clean a cat box...Are you gonna
: care when the neighbor backs over it?

I appreciate your good intentions but you are only projecting the cats
you have known, I know my cat better than you are likely to.

She does have her own preference. Except on extremely cold days, she
just wants to be in the porch all the time, even in slightly bad
weather (the porch is covered). She cannot escape to the street. She
can go to the neighbor's yards, but shows no inclination to do so. She
stays in our porch, leaving it only to relieve herself.

Of course I can forcibly confine her indoors, and I am thinking of
doing so in the night.

I wish I could keep my cat inside. It a tom cat. It wants outside a
lot especially in the evenings. (It a stray we took in)

The raccoons are taking over a cat house we bought. I wish there is
something we could do (besides move the house inside).


Not all raccoons are bad. I have seen a stray cats and raccoon eating
food together.


Greg Ro

It is irritating to see someone say that a person
who cares enough to write a ng about her pet ...
being called lazy. How would anyone know
whether the cat has a preference or not?

"Richard Underwood" wrote in message
news:aHlwYXRpYQ==.29a003e481582804d67f7b8b630105e7 @1124901604.nulluser.com...
Kiran wrote:

My cat is an indoors/outdoors cat. Ever since winters ended, she has
insisted on sleeping in the porch. She also prefers not to use the
litter-box and like to go outdoors. [snip] I am only speculating, I have no experience with
wildlife, and would like to hear what the experienced people think.

Kiran


Have you ever seen a raccoon under attack? Esp. a mother. It can and
will kill your cat. They are vicious and have needlesharp teeth and
claws AND paws that work like human hands.

As for your cat "preferring to go outdoors" she does not have a
preference, you just dont want to clean a cat box. But its either
that or keep getting awakened each time your cat has to go. Is this
animal neutered? Does it have shots? Are you gonna care when the neighbor
backs over it?

Ted Davis wrote:

: Such things can be bought as a package - they are common for
: photographing wildlife. I sometimes think about buying one, but then
: I remember that I seldom see the animals in the same place and I don't
: plan on baiting them...

I am in an urban setting! If it is affordable enough I would consider
watching my back porch and lawn late nights.

AKA gray asphalt wrote:

: It is irritating to see someone say that a person who cares
: enough to write a ng about her pet ... being called lazy. How
: would anyone know whether the cat has a preference or not?

I have no idea why any intelligent person would think that a living
creature cannot have preference. Cats have always had a reputation
for being finicky, picky etc., what is that if not "preference"?

A funny footnote is that we do have a litterbox inside. The situation
has nothing to do with litterbox, but with my cat wanting to spend all
the time outside. If she is outdoors, she is not going to come inside
to "go". If last winter is any guide, she'd always want to step out for
a while but one day she will decide on her own it is time to start
sleeping inside.

GregRo wrote:

: The raccoons are taking over a cat house we bought. I wish there is
: something we could do (besides move the house inside).

If you are handy, take a cue from Ted's feeding house,

http://www.thewildones.net/raccoons.htm

and build a cat-house cats can jump to but raccoons can't!


: Not all raccoons are bad. I have seen a stray cats and raccoon eating
: food together.

Good to hear. I must these raccoons have done nothing aggressive. Over
many years, I have seen them only a few times in neighboring yards, and
recently twice on my porch. That was almost certainly my fault, I let a
situation develop where food crumbs were lying on the floor.