Raccoons
Well, we didn’t lose one of the baby raccoons after all.
Lately, they’ve been coming up to feed in ones, twos or threes. Since I can’t really tell them apart, I figured the total was now three. But last night – all four were there at one point.
Maybe what’s happening is that they are at the age where they are beginning to separate and establish their own dens and hunting routines and such. They are getting to the size where they compete pretty fiercely for food. Plus, they are at the point where they are trying to fatten up for the winter months.
Which leads to . . .
Porch and Screen Door
The one that was the runt, and is still just a bit smaller than the rest, has taken to climbing the screen doors and screens on the porch. Unfortunately he (or she) found an edge opening in the living room screen door and almost made her way into the living room. I had to shoo her away – after I sent the wrong signal by petting her on the head and giving her a cracker. Which to her was a reward for being so ingenious.
Learning patterns kicked in and last night she was again trying to come in via the living room screen door. When that didn’t work – she started exploring the screened porch – and naturally found a way in there.
Since she (and they) are finding the areas where the screens are somewhat loose in the frames and pushing their way in – the simple solution is to re-screen the doors and porch. Screens stretch and sag with time and require maintenance anyway, even without raccoons. So I plan to do some re-screening this weekend.
Nuke, being Nuke, took the aggressive approach. He yells, tries to chase them off, stomps at them, throws water on them – overall making a lot noise and generally disturbing the peace. Given just about any situation – whether discussing politics, driving in traffic or feeding raccoons – Nuke will invariably choose confrontation*.
Which is another reason why I’ll re-screen this weekend. It’ll solve the raccoon problem and get Nuke to shut the hell up.
For a while anyway.
LOL
Movies
Watched The Last King of Scotland last night and part of City of God. LKoS was excellent. CoG – went to bed halfway through it – don’t need to see the end of it - hope Nuke puts it in the mailbox to send it back to Netflix.
*There is a reason his nickname is Nuke 'em
Well, we didn’t lose one of the baby raccoons after all.
Lately, they’ve been coming up to feed in ones, twos or threes. Since I can’t really tell them apart, I figured the total was now three. But last night – all four were there at one point.
Maybe what’s happening is that they are at the age where they are beginning to separate and establish their own dens and hunting routines and such. They are getting to the size where they compete pretty fiercely for food. Plus, they are at the point where they are trying to fatten up for the winter months.
Which leads to . . .
Porch and Screen Door
The one that was the runt, and is still just a bit smaller than the rest, has taken to climbing the screen doors and screens on the porch. Unfortunately he (or she) found an edge opening in the living room screen door and almost made her way into the living room. I had to shoo her away – after I sent the wrong signal by petting her on the head and giving her a cracker. Which to her was a reward for being so ingenious.
Learning patterns kicked in and last night she was again trying to come in via the living room screen door. When that didn’t work – she started exploring the screened porch – and naturally found a way in there.
Since she (and they) are finding the areas where the screens are somewhat loose in the frames and pushing their way in – the simple solution is to re-screen the doors and porch. Screens stretch and sag with time and require maintenance anyway, even without raccoons. So I plan to do some re-screening this weekend.
Nuke, being Nuke, took the aggressive approach. He yells, tries to chase them off, stomps at them, throws water on them – overall making a lot noise and generally disturbing the peace. Given just about any situation – whether discussing politics, driving in traffic or feeding raccoons – Nuke will invariably choose confrontation*.
Which is another reason why I’ll re-screen this weekend. It’ll solve the raccoon problem and get Nuke to shut the hell up.
For a while anyway.
LOL
Movies
Watched The Last King of Scotland last night and part of City of God. LKoS was excellent. CoG – went to bed halfway through it – don’t need to see the end of it - hope Nuke puts it in the mailbox to send it back to Netflix.
*There is a reason his nickname is Nuke 'em
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