<p>This morning we were abruptly woken up to sounds of a dogs barking and an animal screeching. I bounded out of bed to find a raccoon on the upstairs stair bannister. The dogs chased the varmint downstairs. It was now under the dining room table where my wife and I tried unsuccessfully to coax outside. Finally, our Great Dane took matters into her own hands and dove under the table and grabbed the ROUS by the scruff of its neck and ran outside with it. She proceeded to shake the life out of it. The raccoon had gotten in through the doggy door and had gotten into the dog bones but that was the extent of damage other than some raccoon urine and blood on the floor and on the dining room chair seats. So are there any other varmint stories out there and what is the best way to get a raccoon out of your house? I going to have to now lock the doggie door each night.</p>
<p>Dave, We used to have a lot of lawn at our former house and Racoons would come and “flip the turf” looking for various bugs/insects in the soil. They have very sharp claws and can turn over large areas of lawn rather quickly. You are lucky your masked marauder was in a docile mood and didn’t use those sharp instruments on your dog. You can purchase a cage that holds bait and trap them, if you ever get one inside your house again. Hopefully, your animal/vector control doesn’t take as long to respond in your neighborhood as they do in mine.</p>
<p>We had to professionally critter proof our house after a family of raccoons took up residence in the attic- they enjoyed being out of the weather and made trails in the insulation (they got in through spots where the soffits met the roof), we heard them running around various parts of the house. I had previously needed to add wires to attach a sunflower feeder so raccoons wouldn’t take it down and remove the cover- caught one at the feeder in the middle of the night once, the second time I found the empty, taken apart feeder on the ground was the time to make it more difficult (so I spend my time getting cold every time I have to untwist wires to refill that feeder). We have some fencing around that garden area to keep the deer away- have given up on squirrel proofing. Years ago my Shih Tzu was very interested in the gutter drain cover at the street corner- I looked and saw several raccoon babies. Life with woods in the city.</p>
<p>For a while we had 3 raccoons that would come and play on our roof and decks every Saturday night. They made a racket up on the roof with their stomping around. I’d try to scare them off by picking limes off a nearby tree and throwing the limes at them (‘nearby’ of course - not trying to actually hit them). They’d watch the lime hit the roof roll down the roof, then look at me, …repeat. Eventually I figured they were using a nearby tree to get on the roof and I cut the tree back. Why just (mostly) every Saturday night - who knows?</p>
<p>I also spotted a skunk in the back one morning (dawn) on the way to my beater truck back there. It spotted me, took a few steps towards me, I took a few steps away from it, it started chasing me, I started running the other direction! About a quarter acre away it finally stopped chasing me, turned around with a ‘harumph!’, and went back to its business of digging at the ground under a tree. </p>
<p>We had a possum living in our garage for a couple of weeks. I know something was in there but didn’t know what until I opened the door one morning (still dark out) and had a possum about 2 feet away staring at me. This got my attention to say the least. My W mentioned it to some lady she walks with who told her how to catch a possum in the garage - she’d heard it at the Wild Animal Park near here. My W setup a trash can in the garage with some cat food in the bottom and a box step to help it get in. Sure enough - around dusk there was the possum in the can just looking up at me. I took it across the street a ways to a wildish area and let it go.</p>
<p>You might want to give your local animal control person a call. In some areas there’s a lot of rabies in the raccoon population, in which case, you have a serious problem that needs to be dealt with promptly… everyone needs vaccination.</p>
<p>Yes, any animals that came in contact with the raccoon need a consult with the vet. If you came in direct contact you also need to seek advice. Here in Florida rabies runs rampant in raccoons. For adults, there is a protocol for post exposture prophylazis PEP). <a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/exposure/[/url]”>http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/exposure/</a></p>
<p>It can be transmitted through saliva and blood, so if it even spit on you while hissing (especially with any contact of spit to eyes or mucus membranes) or you cleaned up blood, you need to consult with the local health department. They have the info in your area for likelihood of the rabies virus in raccoon. </p>
<p>The shots are painless and given in the arm and are NOT the ones of years ago that were painful or given in the abdomen.</p>
<p>Fortunately there is no known incidence of rabies in raccoons in California at the time. Not like Georgia and Florida.</p>
<p>Late one night I was cleaning the kitchen and happened to look down the hall towards the front door and there was an opossum INSIDE my house. Some how I remained calm and called to my son who was in the family room. I told him to be quiet and come to where I was. I pointed to the front door and the opossum. He was alarmed but kept quiet I told him to be ready to open the front door as I took a broom and tried to sweep it out. We had no luck. Fortunately the possum was very still and did not seem to become angry. At that point I went and woke my husband. He was a little surprised to hear of an opossum in the house. He came downstairs and went straight for the critter and my son and I became alarmed. He was only wearing gym shorts and we were afraid if he picked it up he might get injured. With a great sign and rolling of the eyes he went to the kitchen, with my son and I looking on, and got a pair of pot holders, went to the possum picked it up, placed it outside, handed me the pot holders (which I immediately put in the trash) then went back to bed, without a word during the whole thing.</p>
<p>We have a family of raccoons next door and we steer clear- we had a dog die after going septic in a tussle with a raccoon 20+ years ago (the punctures are small and deep so the infection can fester unknown until it is too late) We also had our dog at this house nearly die from leptospirosis which is apparently passed on via raccoon urine :(</p>
<p>Once when one was cornered in the house, we locked all the critters in the bedroom and left the door open and he left willingly, but when they do venture in (we tend to leave all the doors open in the summer) if you look at angle you can see their footprints show they have fully explored the house!</p>
<p>SRW: you might want to google “playing possum”–when frightened, possums often pretend to be dead (“going very still”) until the danger is past.</p>
<p>I think any raccoon that is brazen enough to come inside the house, should be considered a possible disease carrier.
I know they are bold, but that seems too forward.( especially with large animals* inside the house*</p>
<p>Just remembered. The critter pro (has good education in his field- I asked) used wasp/hornet spray to discourage the raccoons’ return/attempts to find access. He used an off brand, apparently they dislike the smell. You may want to spray the area in addition to locking the dog door at night to get the critter to change habits.</p>
<p>I’d always heard of possums “playing dead” under stress and had assumed they just went limp, but when I saw one do this, it looked more as if it had had an epileptic seizure. After a few minutes it got up and bustled away as if nothing had happened.</p>
<p>I’d take any dog that had been in a fight with a wild animal straight to the vet, whether or not rabies is endemic in your area. And if you were exposed to the urine or blood, call your doctor. It is just not worth taking any risk.</p>
<p>We had a raccoon that would come through the cat door onto our screened porch. It would use the litter box (and I tell you that urine is much, much worse than feline), eat the cat food, wash up in the water bowl and proceed to curl up in a rocker. One night in the dark I though it was one of our gray tabbies and went to pick it up—the thing went crazy! I finally got it out the door with a broom but it was a struggle. The dogs in the house were going wild but luckily didn’t get to it (we do have rabies in area)</p>
<p>I called animal control and found out it was illegal to relocate raccoons. They suggested I trap it and then shoot it. Oh yeah! Even if I could shoot, like I would shoot some poor animal in a trap.</p>
<p>What I did was trap it and a neighbor did take it away (if he did something else, I don’t want to know)</p>
<p>One morning I heard a strange noise in our spare bedroom–turned out to be a squirrel. I called animal control to ask if they had any suggestions for getting it out of the house. The woman asked if I had tried opening the window. Well, no, something that simple had never occurred to me. Feeling pretty stupid, I removed the screen and opened the window. The nanosecond it was open, the squirrel raced across the room and took a flying leap out the window. Fortunately, I got out of the way just in time–a squirrel moving that fast could be a lethal weapon.</p>
<p>In recent years, we have been spending New Year’s at our lake house out in rural semi-West Texas. It’s in a spectacularly beautiful hill country, but really out in the middle of nowhere, with all kinds of critters native to the area (deer, longhorn cattle, raccoons, possums, rats, snakes, skunks, wild boars, wild turkeys, armadillos, etc). After several mishaps with flooding toilets and such, we have established a policy of turning off the water when we leave. D1 had just arrived home from London and was really homesick for our lake house. She asked for a “Mommy/daughter only night” at the lake before the New Year’s arrivals. Happy to oblige, I agreed, and we made the trek late afternoon and arrived after sunset to a dark, cold, empty house. Once there, I asked her to go with me to turn on the water, which requires a short walk in the dark to the “pump room”, which is kept locked. She outright refused to go, saying “I’m scared of what might be out there!” Disgusted, I walked solo out to the pump room to turn on the water. Since it was so dark, I brought a flashlight in order to see my way to the pump room and once there, be able to unlock the door. That task accomplished, I turned on the light once inside in order to find the water valve. After I turned on the water, I turned towards the door to exit, and suddenly heard a growl. I was so startled that I ran shrieking from the room, closing the door behind me before sprinting back to the house. After hearing my story, D1 declared she had been right to decline my invitation to go with me. Loved the concern for my welfare.</p>
<p>Hubby insists the noise was pipes reacting to the water being turned back on, air clearing or something, but I’ll say that I never went back to that room the rest of the holiday weekend… We’ve had raccoons get into that room numerous times since it also houses the bird seed we put into the feeders. I don’t like raccoons or skunks as I know they are frequent rabies carriers. Hubby insists I was imagining things. It didn’t sound like air in pipes, it sounded like a growl…Yuck.</p>
<p>We had a mama raccoon that took up residence in our chimney. We blocked up the bottom of the fireplace so she couldn’t get into the house. Once her babies were old enough and she moved out we got a cap put on the chimney.</p>
<p>Apparently (according to various Google hits) mama raccoons like chimneys for raising their young because they are similar to hollow trees.</p>
<p>I would consider getting rabies shots for everyone in the family. Years ago there was a man in a nearby town who actually died from rabies because they had a racoon in their attic and he was up there for a while arranging boxes. My neighbor next door was evacuated from her home for a few days after it was determined by the town that the racoon who had entered her home most likely had rabies. They caught the racoon and the family had to have the shots.</p>
<p>Had a similar incident a few years back. Culprit: dog’s food right near dog door. Don’t feed dogs near the door any longer and no more problems.</p>
<p>Years ago we had a rabid raccoon on the lawn near the mailbox. It was late afternoon and the kids came in to say this raccoon was out there—staggering around looking very sick. </p>
<p>We called the twp. animal control and they said to watch it & not let it get away (like we planned to go anywhere near it). But they did not turn up. Then we called the police who sent an officer and he stayed with my DH and the raccoon, periodically calling the animal officer to try & get him over here. </p>
<p>Eventually it was getting dark and the officer decided to shoot the poor thing. It was so far gone had green flies buzzing around it. He had to call the station to say he was going to use his gun, then DH & he manuevered the animal from the driveway (where it had dragged itself) onto the lawn so the bullet would not bounce off the asphalt and go who knows where. Then he shot it and they left the trash can on it with a heavy rock to weigh it down.</p>
<p>The next day, more calling animal control, to get them to come & pick up the carcass. Yes, it did test positive for rabies. </p>
<p>Raccoons used to mess around with our trash cans. We stopped it by cleaning out the cans with a strong bleach solution, then leaving them overturned for a few days so it was obvious there were no more goodies (and storing the trash in the basement). They moved to the neighbors’ trash.</p>