Sue

All wild life is fair game for the dinner table in my parts....





These are cute too:

But, prefer them on my table then having an personal encounter with one.  I literally had a standoff with one. Came home one night & Big Bertha was on our porch enjoying that nights dinner from our trash & wouldn't let me in my own house.    It was an intense time, some things were said, some stuff was thrown, some claws were revealed.....but in the end. I won.

This woman wasn't so lucky...

LAKELAND - A 74-year-old woman is recovering from injuries she received after being attacked by five raccoons at her front door Saturday evening, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.

Gretchen Whitted of Lakeland was seriously injured in the attack that happened about 5:30 p.m. at her home at 1210 Waterford Drive, the sheriff's office said.

"She was gashed open around her legs," said Sheriff Grady Judd. "We're not talking about a lot of little bites here.

"She was filleted," he said.

Whitted heard a noise outside her house and saw five raccoons in her back yard. They then migrated to her front yard. She opened the front door of her home to wave the critters away, but when she did, they attacked her, biting and scratching her legs. Whitted fell and the animals continued to attack her.

Later, she told investigators, she wasn't sure whether she fell over her own feet or over the animals, Judd said. She also thought that perhaps the mother in the group was trying to protect her young.

Neighbor Christy Steinmetz said she was sitting on her couch with her family when she heard something that sounded at first like laughter. She was on her way to check it out when she heard Whitted cry, "Help."

She said she found Whitted on her hands and knees trying to get up and the raccoons coming from the front porch area. Steinmetz said she backed up into the street to get out of the way of the raccoons, which appeared to be on their way to a drain.

"She was in disbelief," Steinmetz said of Whitted's reaction to the incident. "She didn't believe the raccoons attacked her."

Whitted was transported to Lakeland Regional Medical Center where she is in stable condition in the trauma unit. She received dozens of staples and sutures, and will require additional treatment.

"The victim is being treated as though she has had a rabies exposure," Judd said. "While we don't know if there has been an actual exposure, we just can't take that chance."

Typically, raccoons only come out at night. Authorities are concerned as to why the critters took part in what Judd called a "gang attack" during daylight hours.

Deputies enlisted firefighters to flush the drain into which the raccoons disappeared, and traps were being set up throughout the neighborhood. Residents were also being alerted to the attack via automated telephone alerts.

oh how i understand your dislike of the squirrels..i used to own a duplex and an entire family moved in to my attic..not only did they move in but the damaged the roof and eves (sp?) as they moved in..ended up costing me a couple thousand to repair roof and to get rid of them..the pest man said when he caught them in the trap that he would have to take them like 20 miles away because that is how far they scavenge for food..he ended up catching 10 of them in 3 traps in my attic..

A couple of winters ago they climbed up under my husbands van and chewed through some the wiring under the hood. 

No doubting squirrels were the culprits.  He found empty peanut shells in there too. 

Dang I didn't know that squirrels and raccoons were gangstas !!!! Get him Que before he gets you !!

Sheeeeeeet he done ALREADY got me.

Girl, coons are the original OG's & Lord help you if you stumble upon a pregnant one or one with a new litter.    I wish my encounter was caught on tape, cause this coon was straight GHETTO!!   She was nibbling on bbq rib  bone in one paw & her other free paw w/claws extended out at me, all while on her hinds legs &  blocking the entrance to my back porch & this was AFTER I had thrown a rock or 2 at her tail.    She finally left the porch, with a bbq rib bone in her paw, after I started using my purse as rope a dope on her.  She didn't know what to think about that one.

After that I never felt sorry ever again when I see them dead on the side of the road.