Nuisance aminals

[SadieKate]

While we were on vacation the apricot tree which is having a bumper crop started dumping fruit all over the lawn. The durn Wonder Poodle who loves apricots had a feast. The biggest problem? He figured out how to spit out the pits so now we have to go around in the grass on our hands and knees finding the pits before we can mow the lawn.

Bubba picked up about 75 pits last night after witnessing one of the pit spitting episodes.

[coyote]

We had a similar experience....taught the dog to pick ripe tomatoes. Now we have to put the plants behind wire. The dog walks by everyday and sniffs. Anything outside the wire is fair game

[snapdragen]

A friend of mine's dog would eat tomatoes too. Caranne would be waiting for the tomatoes to get ripe, and when she was ready to go pick them, Lady had already eaten them.

I had a dog that would dig up carrots and eat them. She thought it was wonderful that we grew dog treats!

[Eden]

If I ever catch the racoon that keeps ripping up my Irises........

[DarcyInOregon]

Wish you would take a photo of your dog eating apricots. I would love to see that. That would be good enough to replace my bike photo I use for a screen saver.

The raccoons are cute, cute, cute. I live rurally, and the raccoons come and go, munching on kitty kibble on the front porch. They don't show up every night, but a few times a week. Last night I turned on the porch lights and there was a mommy raccoon teaching her two babies how to eat kitty kibble. The babies were about the size of an 8-10 week kitten, just little fluffs of fur.

Eden, I don't think raccoons dig up Irises. I have lots of Irises and lots of raccoons, and I've never had an Iris dug up. The culprit is probably a ground squirrel.

Darcy

[Eden]

Nope its a nasty racoon. My irises grow in the water. It's not the irises that the racoon is really interested in. They are beautiful Japanese irises and he waits until about 2 days before its ready to bloom and then wreaks havoc. He thinks that there might be frogs or fishies in there so he rolls over all the rocks and rips up my irises.
Nope sorry, not cute at all in this neighborhood. The mess up gardens, get into trash, have loud fights and kill kitties (yet another reason mine are indoors only!) Coyote pee worked for a few days, as did a radio at night, but both were figured out pretty quickly.

[kjay]

Anything a poodle does is fine by me. I'd love to see a pic of yours, SK. Wonduring if the apricots had a laxative effect? That would be the pits.

[mimitabby]

Eden, I've lived in this house for 20 years and we've never left food outside and no raccoons. Fortunately we've no neighbors that think they are cute to feed either. On the cat network I have heard of fat sassy raccoons that suddenly decide that cats are fair game. and the cats that survive raccoon attacks are in a pretty bad way..Raccoons outweigh most cats by about double when they are healthy and fullgrown. THank goodness I don't have to deal with that!

the only varmints we have are starlings who screech and carry on while they destroy my fig crop. I shoot them with my trusty water hose and foil them by putting socks on large figs.

[DarcyInOregon]

How do raccoons kill cats? I've lived here for 30 years, on 50 acres, growing trees, so I have lots of wildlife because my land is forested. When I look outside, the raccoons and my cats are on the porch, totally indifferent to each other, within a few feet of each other. Now I've had stray un-neutered tom cats come by and attack my cats and try to kill them, but never a raccoon. I had a couger cut open a dog from scrotum to throat. I had a nutria kill a cat, about 28 years ago; the vet identified the killer as a nutria from the spit left on my cat. I had an eagle kill a cat by swooping down and breaking its neck. I've had coyotes kill and carry off some cats and so I now have an Anatolian to keep the predators away. I would say the most benign critter on my property is the raccoon.

I should add I haven't lost a cat since I got my Anatolian. And for the kitty lovers, yes my precious kitties are inside, but some of them are dumped cats who are shy and don't want to live inside, and those are the ones who got killed in the past years, the ones who refused to live inside.

Darcy

[BikeMomma]

My mom's dog loves to graze on the hundreds of plums that drop from her plum tree every year. Unfortunately, the result is the pungent aroma the otherwise sweet pooch emits from the derriere region!

Peeee--uuuuuu!!
~BikeMomma

[Zen]

Plum farts and pit spitters!

Ranger loved veggies, when the net from the bag containing onions was left poking out the cupboard door he had an onion fest. When I had a garden he would eat green beans off the vine. He had a buddy at the time, a black lab, who had a penchant for cantaloupes. He would pick one, carry it out on the lawn and have a relaxing knosh.

Some people are amazed that the dogs like vegetables, they must have never had a dog.

[Eden]

Sorry Darcy, you're just not going to convert me to a racoon lover. I live in the city - and I've been seeing racoons out during the day around here recently - with people around and everything so I'm thinking they are getting much more bold. Maybe out in the country where there are lots of other opportunities to eat they are not a dangerous nuisance, but around here they've started to decide that pets are fair game..... (oh and don't talk to the people who try to keep koi ponds...)
I live a 15 min walk from downtown Seattle, so we don't have the big predators... (though I have heard rumors that someone saw a coyote a few blocks from my house) so I can be pretty sure cougars aren't killing all the cats - still an unbelievable number went missing this spring.

[SadieKate]

Darby, in an urban environment raccoons are very adaptive. Just like coyotes.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14486644/

Two slaps with a wet noodle for kjay.

[Lise]

Mr. Spock, J's dog, loves cauliflower. And that's about it. Other vegetables he will politely accept, perhaps even make a show of chewing once or twice, but then walk away and drop them somewhere inconspicuous so as not to hurt our feelings by rejecting our kind offer. Last night I found a chunk of chewed carrot on the front hall rug.

I love the image of a black lab noshing on a cantaloupe!

[SadieKate]

Izaak the Wonder Poodle will eat carrots and apples until he's sick. Anything sweet and crunchy, but the pit trick is new.

Darby, leaving out anything attractive to raccoons can invite trouble. For one thing they carry Leptospirosis that can be picked up from their urine and transmitted to your pet and/or you. My parents nearly lost one of their poodles to it several months ago and they're still fitting health issues with the same dog. No raccoons in the yard until they put in a fish pond with gold fish.

Add that to rabies and raccoon roundworm.

http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/ope/enotes/s...cle.cfm?id=187
http://www.peteducation.com/article....&articleid=454
http://www.hsus.org/wildlife/a_close.../raccoons.html