Sun shining, full daylight, I heard this awful high-pitched continual whining animal sound and went out to the front porch: it was a raccoon in the bushes that kept the noise up and came toward me, didn't shoo away. I thought maybe it had been killing a rabbit, that was the only sense I could make of the noise, but it kept it up.
I heard it making that noise again half an hour later at the back door, and when I went there to run it off, it came at me aggressively twice and clearly meant to get into the house with me --- I barely got the door closed in time.
So I went directly to wake up Mr. Shotgun, and he prowled around the house several times and the barns; we could tell from the livestock behavior that nothing was scaring them, so it's gone for now. We clearly have a rabid raccoon (I looked it up -- the noise and the aggression are diagnostic) and I'm afraid it will attack me going out to the car or gardening.
I'm worried about calling Animal Control because they'll try to blame us, they won't catch it (we've called them about dogs occasionally, they can't catch nothin'), basically it's better to stay away from local government as much as possible. I saw one of those big beautiful red-spotted Chinese moths on a telephone pole here a few years ago, but had better sense than to call the number they put on TV! They'd have trucks here, hit us with a hundred coercive rules, tell us we can't drive here, can't drive there, spray pesticides on everything ---- and how would that stop the moth invasion? It wouldn't. They have the strangest immature instars that are also large and leap around --- I see them every summer. They seem attracted to humans, but they don't bite. I never saw another of the adult moths. IMO it's useless to try to stop these invasive species.
We have large-animal cage traps and Himself catches raccoons every summer in some numbers (it's them or the corn and melons, one or the other). We'll try to catch the rabid one ourselves first, but if it keeps going after us, we may have to call the police after all. I hope not. I'm worried about the neighbors and kids in the small subdivision up the hill. Does anyone think there's a moral issue here, about warning people? I did call a favorite neighbor.
I heard it making that noise again half an hour later at the back door, and when I went there to run it off, it came at me aggressively twice and clearly meant to get into the house with me --- I barely got the door closed in time.
So I went directly to wake up Mr. Shotgun, and he prowled around the house several times and the barns; we could tell from the livestock behavior that nothing was scaring them, so it's gone for now. We clearly have a rabid raccoon (I looked it up -- the noise and the aggression are diagnostic) and I'm afraid it will attack me going out to the car or gardening.
I'm worried about calling Animal Control because they'll try to blame us, they won't catch it (we've called them about dogs occasionally, they can't catch nothin'), basically it's better to stay away from local government as much as possible. I saw one of those big beautiful red-spotted Chinese moths on a telephone pole here a few years ago, but had better sense than to call the number they put on TV! They'd have trucks here, hit us with a hundred coercive rules, tell us we can't drive here, can't drive there, spray pesticides on everything ---- and how would that stop the moth invasion? It wouldn't. They have the strangest immature instars that are also large and leap around --- I see them every summer. They seem attracted to humans, but they don't bite. I never saw another of the adult moths. IMO it's useless to try to stop these invasive species.
We have large-animal cage traps and Himself catches raccoons every summer in some numbers (it's them or the corn and melons, one or the other). We'll try to catch the rabid one ourselves first, but if it keeps going after us, we may have to call the police after all. I hope not. I'm worried about the neighbors and kids in the small subdivision up the hill. Does anyone think there's a moral issue here, about warning people? I did call a favorite neighbor.