Comments on: ‘Coons

By: Kelley

Kelley — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:37:58 +0000

We’ve lived in Wallingford since 2001, between 45th & 50th on 2nd Ave NE, and have always had a “family” of ‘coons living under our front porch. Though our basement bedroom is right next to their lair, we’ve only actually heard them a couple of times. We see them occasionally – hard to miss ‘em, they are nearly as large as our 25lb dogs – lumbering through our back yard or down the driveway and across the street, no doubt out “hunting” for a pot of hot-tub-stewed humanity…

By: Janey

Janey — Thu, 28 May 2009 06:12:51 +0000

They’ve been here forever, but it’s only recently that I’ve seen them in the middle of the day. So much for nocturnal!

By: Chris W.

Chris W. — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:28:07 +0000

And they’re totally huge around here. I’m from Austin, and they say everything is bigger in Texas — but not the raccoons, man!

By: Lee

Lee — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:56:41 +0000

Saw one lumber by the bus stop earlier this week—not used to seeing them midday like that.

By: Sharad

Sharad — Thu, 28 May 2009 01:02:50 +0000

I see coons regularly in my backyard, at least once a week

By: Peg

Peg — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:05:08 +0000

My favorite ‘coon encounter was last fall while sitting at my kitchen table looking out at my grape arbor. There sat one big masked guy — munching on the grapes. With a look that said, “hey … thanks, these are pretty good…smack.” I went outside and yelled and waved — he didn’t budge. Picked up a broom and beat at the arbor and he finally lumbered off. But …. sheesh….the look of entitlement!

By: Kerrizor

Kerrizor — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:48:25 +0000

Probably a little subjective – with more sunlight we’re all more active into the evenings around dusk, so we tend to spot them more, while possums are more nocturnal. With more chickens, urban gardens, and the increased food waste composting the last year or so, we might have an uptick in the raccoon population.

By: Aleece

Aleece — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:11:16 +0000

We woke up one night a few years ago to find 3 raccoons feasting on our dog’s food in the basement. They were breaking into our house via the cat door while we were gone on vacation. Once the dog was back from his stay at a friend’s house, he was able to scare them away when they attempted to break in again and they stopped coming inside the house. We think it was at least 3 days that they had a gourmet dinner of kibble.

We haven’t had any issues since, but they are definitely brave little critters in this neighborhood.

By: David

David — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:10:52 +0000

We’ve lived in Wallingford since 1985, and raccoons have surely been around since then. One day — middle of the day — we had a family of four up in our trees. Another time we pulled into the driveway — again, in the middle of the day — and had a stare down with a big raccoon. Maybe they are on the rise, but they are surely not new to the ‘hood.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:45:46 +0000

They leave poop on the roof. Yuck. Nasty neighbors.

By: Eric Fisk

Eric Fisk — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:40:22 +0000

Raccoons are winning by way of being viscious little buggers. We had a possum living under our deck for a while. We had a few moments face to face with him when we’d get into our hot tub. One morning we went out and found the possum’s head perched on a concrete wall, appearing very much like a warning to others.

Raccoons also killed 2 of our full grown chickens a couple years back. One of them was running free in the yard so there were all these puffs of feathers, plus some blood smeared on the back door when the chicken tried to alert us. The other chicken was name Eye Pecker- we weren’t so sad to see her get nabbed.

In the end we added an electric fence. No more raccoons since then…

By: Margaret

Margaret — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:39:45 +0000

I’d be willing to bet our raccoon friends are tempted by the new, overwhelming stinky-yet-appealing-to-rodent mix of smells emanating from our food/yard waste cans.