Guess who's coming to dinner?
 

Not a half hour ago, I was about to let my dog Stitches (see Avatar) out. Opened the door leading to the garage and there was this loud "wooooooop" sound, as if a cop car hit one warning blast to move over. Opened again, same noise and looked on the stairway and there was this poor raccoon. Soaking wet, showing his teeth, and had a face full of porcupine quills. Hubby finally got him out of the garage and put him out of his misery. Several years ago, we had an incident with a rabid raccoon on our road. It came into our garage and tore up on the carpeting on the garage steps. It then went up to the neighbor and cornered her dog. The neighbor shot it and brought it in for testing and it was positive. I still felt bad about Rocky's demise.

oh so sad. but you must be careful. my girlfriend lives in Houston and has a townhome with an atrium. her kitten was let out there to play and it started chasing a bat! turned out the bat was rabid and both her cats had to be quaranteened for weeks to make sure they were fine. no way to tell if the kitten had been bitten but turned out he hadn't been.

You feel so sorry for these critters. Hubby said the animal was extremely thin. Maybe not sick but so covered in the face with quills, it probably could have eaten very little. Even your friend in Houston, Nativetexan wasn't immune from the urban wildlife in the form of the bat! Given my druthers, would rather face down a snarly raccoon versus a bat.

That's to bad but you have to be so careful of wild animals. Sue

Raccoons used to defecate and fornicate in our swimming pool. Kept ruining the screen enclosure to get in. They tore apart our fish pond to scratch out the eyes of our goldfish. Not eat them, just scratch out their eyes. Bats eat hundreds of bugs every night, including mosquitoes. Raccoons eat your garbage and strew around what they do not want. Raccoons are cute and destructive. Bats are ugly and scary and so helpful.

Even us city folks have to deal with wide life. Night before last, my dog was sprayed by a stunk in our back yard. I spent all day yesterday shampooing carpets. When the dog came in, she was wildly trying to rub the smell off by rubbing all over the carpet. Nothing like bathing your dog at 3 in the morning in tomato juice. The house is back to smelling some what better. Can you believe, my main concern was a quilt on the table not smelling like a skunk. All it needs is the binding. Its hanging outside on the clothesline, hope it smells OK when I bring it in. I may have to bind it outside and stick it in washing machine as soon as I bring it in the house. I read on line that vinegar and baking soda will cut the smell. Works too. May all your smells be sweet.

You did the right thing. Our county is one of the highest for rabid coon. Had to shoot one 6 times two years ago before it would die. Sent the head in to be tested and came back very rabid.

I'd rather face down a firing squad versus a bat. Yes, it's true... I'm TERRIFIED of bats. I'd never even seen a real one till we moved to WI. I woke up one AM, heard a weird scratching beside me in the bed, looked over & guess who/what? A BAT! IN BED WITH ME! I called 9-1-1! For real! I said "This may not seem like an emrgency to you but if you don't get somebody over here ASAP to get this *%#& bat, I'm going to have a stroke & then you WILL have one". Oh, it was awful!!!

Better to have your DH put the raccoon down rather than let him starve with all those quills.

Less mess after skunk
 

Next time try Massingil (sp) Douche. Saves the bathroom from tomatoes and smells better, but best of all it WORKS.

years ago my golden who was sprayed by a skunk, we were camping and had to go home the next day. I let the dog have fun swimming in the river. when she was tired the smell was gone. we had a nice trip home back to the rat race.