On Monday, July 28, 2003, at 07:58 AM, Eugene Bradford wrote:
Raccoons have always been my favorite animal; so cute. (But I've never had to deal with them "in person" so to speak. Just know that they can be carriers of rabies.)
Here in Alabama, at least in the area where we live...they didn't mow down all the trees as they built , when this house was constructed, about 25 yrs ago,... we used to get at least 1/2 acre of land. So most of us, from that era, have manicured front yards but backyards that pretty much look like woods. Now as they cut down more trees, even level our wonderful hills , take away more farmland to build all these stupid patio homes with zero lot lands & worse , small strip shopping centers which usually go broke fairly rapidly & are half empty , totally useless pieces of concrete...the wild animals that used to live there are mixing more with us in our yards. we've seen not just raccoons , but possums, deer even foxes & armadillos ( bless their hearts, they're so slow & you usually see them dead on the roadside )...cute as they all are , they all are also capable of carrying disease & biting ( esp. at risk are the children & pets ) damaging property ..but the worse are the coyotes - when they appear , the entire cat population disappears, as do small dogs (& supposively they've tried to carry off toddlers but that just may be a suburban myth)...they don't seem to have any fear of anything tho. It's a shame that some people in their stupid greed, can't remember that wildlife was here 1st & deserve a place to live also...and if they can't remember that , should have enough sense to realize the havoc the homeless wild animals can bring to people. But in this day & age , everyone seems to live for the NOW & forget about the consequences that has to be reckoned with in the future.
Pat H0000