Front Yard Friends

**RDU-JFK** · 2007-09-10, 11:06 AM

Great picture! We get raccoons and opossums in Brooklyn.

**cancidas** · 2007-09-10, 12:10 PM

come to think of it i have seen racoons even in my neighborhood. there is a delapidated shed house two doors down. i saw them a few weeks ago while barbequing in the late evening. i really wanted to get my paintball gun out, they were gone by the time i got back to the yard.

**emshighway** · 2007-09-10, 01:03 PM

Be careful there has been many reports of rabid raccoons.

**mirrodie** · 2007-09-10, 01:13 PM

Good tips. Raccoons are cute and deadly.

Saw a pair of them at the turn off to our street last week, both of them brazen enough to get within 5 feet of the car to check us out.

We have a raccon family likving between our property and hte one next door. Looking to maybe evict them soon ;)

Also, in the front yard, there are the birds (inc Red Cardinals and Blue Jays), chipmunks, Possums (once one slept in our garbage can, shook the can to wake him up, looked and me and went back to sleep!)....
a half mile away, up the mountain ridge of Long Island, I once saw a rooster and a rabbit, in free range, 25 feet from each other.

**Nonstop2AUH** · 2007-09-11, 04:42 AM

Not to go off topic but do any of you guys know if there is a way to tell from seeing it if a raccoon is rabid? Being from Manhattan and not very knowledgeable about animals, I often think all these critters are cute and cuddly ("Rascal" was one of my favorite books as a kid) but if they are potentially diseased that's not good. We once called 311 about squirrels gnawing on the telephone cables out there but the 311 operators just sort of seemed amused by the situation, I suspect if I asked them about raccoons and possums they'd just totally crack up.

**RDU-JFK** · 2007-09-11, 08:49 AM

Originally Posted by Nonstop2AUH

Not to go off topic but do any of you guys know if there is a way to tell from seeing it if a raccoon is rabid? Being from Manhattan and not very knowledgeable about animals, I often think all these critters are cute and cuddly ("Rascal" was one of my favorite books as a kid) but if they are potentially diseased that's not good. We once called 311 about squirrels gnawing on the telephone cables out there but the 311 operators just sort of seemed amused by the situation, I suspect if I asked them about raccoons and possums they'd just totally crack up.

It's tough to identify if a raccoon is rabid. Some rabid animals appear to stumble or run in circles/show erratic behavior. Also some say you're more likely to see a rabid raccoon in the daytime rather than at night, but this is not necessarily true as families might be foraging for food.

I called 311 when I saw 2 raccoons in my backyard and the operator said they would dispatch animal control as long as they were remaining in one place, but of course they scattered.

**emshighway** · 2007-09-11, 02:58 PM

Yea the stumbling around, going in circles and the old foaming at the mouth (but that is later stages) may not be present. Best bet is to keep your distance.