Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Wanna see my raccoons?

If you listen to the podcast, then you have already heard the story of my squirrel infestation in the attic followed by the subsequent raccoon infiltration. Thankfully, all attic critters seem to have been captured and evicted, but I thought you might enjoy seeing some pics of the process. 

These first pics are of the mama who was quite large at around 20 pounds.










This is of the baby, a yearling who was around 10-12 pounds. He came out of the attic about 24 hours after the mama because he got hot and hungry. 



Both of the raccoons were released into the wild in a nearby town around 100 miles away. Hopefully, that's far enough that they don't return to Casa Lowder. 

When I returned to the USA last week, you can imagine how surprised I was to see a large fox loping through my front yard. A neighbor snapped this photo of said fox whom I've nicknamed Tod (bonus points for recognizing that reference).



Considering I live within the city limits in a neighborhood just off a main thoroughfare, the amount and variety of wildlife I'm encountering is a bit surprising. And y'all wonder why I don't spend more time outside here at home. Between the high heat, miserable humidity, overzealous mosquitoes, and audacious wildlife, I think it's safer indoors.

6 comments:

  1. He's a skinny fox! And glad the raccoons went 100 miles away. We just dealt with groundhog/woodchuck invasion for our garage. It was brutal and very reminiscent of the old Groundhog movie. Fox here in Michigan don't seem to be in urban areas - yet. We see them out in the fields and view them from the highways and roads.

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  2. Tod the fox - reference to The Fox & Hound movie? I didn't think you were a Disney fan!

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  3. Mr Tod the fox from Beatrix Potter?

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  4. So, after your critters got taken away, my pound puppy, Ike, who is probably 12, was attacked by a raccoon in our backyard. We live in the city and we are infested with racoons and possums. Who knew? I'm checking my attic now! Ed.

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  5. great photos! we had huge raccoons in our garage in the early years - they came after the cat food. We lived on a cul-de-sac that dropped off into a canyon and rattlesnacks were frequent visitors as were possums. My new neighborhood has a serious coyote problem - they walk down the street in the middle of the day and small dogs disappear - even in fenced in yards.

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  6. We were invaded by chipmunks and they tried to move into our garage after digging holes in the flower beds and making a general mess. They even chewed their own entrance at the base of the overhead garage door. The score at this point: Husband - 7; Chipmunks - 0. And if you need to get chipmunks to leave your garage, the leaf blower works great.

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