MetaChat - Raccoon on my rooftop terrace

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26 March 2007

Raccoon on my rooftop terrace I was just sitting here in my attic workroom, typing away, when I heard something at the door to the terrace and looked over to see a raccoon sniffing at the door. I got up and walked over to the door, and it didn't even run away, just stared me down. The raccoons in Toronto live off the fat of the land and are quite brazen.

post by: Orange Swan at: 06:30 | 13 comments

I got up and walked over to the door, and it didn't even run away

Come to think of it, it's not surprising that the door didn't run away. We have bold and adventurous doors in Toronto.

posted by Orange Swan 26 March | 06:34

A Canadian Door vs a Canadian Raccoon. Whoever wins, we lose.

posted by Memo 26 March | 06:45

Raccoons can be quite trusting and even young adults can be domesticable. The problem though in domesticating a raccoon lies in its insuppressible curiosity. Not even child-proofing gadgets are effective at keeping them from the myriad ways of accidental death around the common human home.

posted by mischief 26 March | 06:46

myriad ways of accidental death

Oh, does that remind me of a story.

About seven years ago, when I was working for a publishing company in Scarborough, one night the warehouse had a power outtage. The guys on duty went to see what was wrong. The problem seemed to be that a raccoon had climbed into the electrical wiring and become an unwitting conduit for approximately 80,000 volts of electricity.

posted by Orange Swan 26 March | 06:57

Wait, is this part of the MeCha crime wave, or part of the MeCha Urban Wildlife Wave?

posted by stilicho 26 March | 07:13

and become an unwitting conduit for approximately 80,000 volts of electricity

Wait, that's a bad thing??!?

posted by deadcowdan 26 March | 07:23

It's always been the squirrels that are bothersome where I live. When I was a kid, one day a squirrel decided to start sunning itself on the patio table right where my mother was sitting.

Then there was the time I was in Washington, D.C. at the Vietnam War memorial and a squirrel climbed onto the lap of a woman sitting on a bench. He was hungry, I guess.

posted by backseatpilot 26 March | 07:47

Along with rats, I put raccoons in the Mammals-Too-Clever-For-Their-Own-Good file.

posted by trondant 26 March | 08:45

Along with rats, I put raccoons in the Mammals-Too-Clever-For-Their-Own-Good file.

And topping that list is humans, at least in my book.

posted by edgeways 26 March | 09:14

A raccoon once killed my daughter's bunny. I am not favorably disposed to them in an urban setting (raccoons, that is).

posted by danf 26 March | 11:27

Along with rats, I put raccoons in the Mammals-Too-Clever-For-Their-Own-Good file.

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by essexjan 26 March | 11:29

There is an enormous conclave of raccoons in the park in front of my condo. I counted over twenty of them one night when I took pictures.

A skinny Polish girl feeds them rolls. I don't have pictures of that, though.

posted by crush-onastick 26 March | 12:11

A raccoon once killed my daughter's bunny. I am not favorably disposed to them in an urban setting (raccoons, that is).

Racoons are vicious things. One time I was walking down a street and saw a seven pound cat and a 35 pound raccoon standing several feet away from each other. The cat looked like she thought she'd found a new friend. The raccoon was snarling. I thought, this will not end well.

posted by Orange Swan 26 March | 12:57

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