Saturday, July 29, 2017

Danger.... raccoons are dining next door

Dear George, 
I’m following your blog for some time now and I really enjoy it! My mommy bought some of your books (whatever she could find at a local book store). We have recently moved to a village – countryside I would say! Nice and quiet, lots of trees and birds and plenty of backyard. But mommy is a little worried as she learned that our next door neighbor is feeding a family of raccoons in her backyard! Our house is not that close to hers but still within walking distance. Mommy is afraid that I’ll get hurt by these raccoons! I don’t even know how they look like – I didn’t see any yet – all I’ve seen so far were little lizards. Am I in any danger? What can we do?
With thanks
Julius

Dear Julius,   
Your human is right to be careful that you don't get into any danger. Raccoons don't usually attack cats and if they do, a full sized adult cat often sees them off. Elderly cats, very small cats and kittens might be more vulnerable.
Here's what your human needs to do to keep you safe. Firstly, make sure there is nothing to attract raccoons to your garden - no garbage, no vegetables, insects etc. Secondly, install a microchip operated cat flap (or a flap too small for a raccoon to squeeze through), that will only open for you. Thirdly, raccoons can climb but they can't jump high. So make sure that good fencing keeps them out.
Put items around the garden for you to jump on to get out of their way - garden chairs, garden tables, large plant pots with room for a cat, and maybe ledges on the fencing at various points. 
If humans were not so dumb, she could go politely to the neighbour and ask her to stop feeding them. But that might set off a neighbour quarrel and quarrelliing humans are difficult! I have had no success in counselling them. Inter-human aggression among neighbours is impossible to resolve.
Yours
George.

5 comments:

  1. Where we live, it is illegal to feed wildlife so I would definitely ask the neighbor to stop. I have heard they don't like loud noises either so maybe play a radio in your yard.

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  2. Thanks George! Thanks Pilch92...! Yes, mommy asked the neighbor to stop feeding the raccoons and she replied that we all are God's creation and need to be taken care of! She said the raccoons never hurt any cat in the area and we are the first to be concerned or complain :-(
    We just moved in the area....we are sort of "the last cat on the block"! Mommy will fence the backyard as George suggested! Purrs to all!
    Julius

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  3. Phew! You look pretty angry Julius! Yes, raccoons can be a problem but if your human will fence the backyard properly ....you'll be safe as you won't be able to get out and wonder around in the neighborhood and the raccoons won't be able to get in! Win-win situation!
    Diego

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  4. The cats from NYJuly 30, 2017

    We have a "country house" in New Jersey and one of our neighbors is feeding together cats and raccoons! Mommy had to build a cat enclosure for us!
    The Cats from New York

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  5. Julius; George iz rite; N for de most part catz N raccoonz get a long grate; we noe oh sum that shared a dawg houz two gether ~~~~~ go figure ~~~~ ♥♥☺☺

    ReplyDelete

Help for cats whose humans show behaviour problems.

This blog is devoted to the study of human behaviour. We cats, who live with this sometimes unpredictable and always feeble minded species, can benefit from seeing their behaviour in its proper scientific context. The study of feline dilemmas, training problems, and difficulties with humans, can only benefit all of us. All of us train our humans - to buy the right food, for instance, but many of us do not have knowledge of how to improve our training methods. The human species is obviously not as intelligent as the cat, but nevertheless can learn quite a lot - if properly managed. Topics of interest include the use of claw and order, purring as a human reward, rubbing your human up the right way, when to bite, spraying as a method of making our wishes known, ignoring the human, human harassment, human inattention and sheer human stupidity. I welcome your questions. Photos can be sent via my secretary's website, www.celiahaddon.com This blog has been chosen as one of the top 50 feline blogs by Online VetTechprogramms.org