Heart Strings

Man, this past Sunday sure was a difficult day!  Around noon I noticed a small raccoon in the backyard.  "Oh cool!" I said to myself.  I don't see raccoons out during the day very often, but to me it isn't that unusual either because it does happen every now and then.  He was a bit of a mess, sporting an injury to his left eye, his tail looked almost like it had been broken at some point, and overall his fur was quite a mess too.  I felt bad for the little guy and assumed he was looking for food, so I threw his some shelled peanuts (no salt of course).

He took his time to eat them all up.  I like watching them feel around everything as they eat.  Their paws are extremely sensitive.  It is said that they have four to five times more sensory cells compared to other animals.

I took a few photos and then went back in the house.

He'd disappear for a while, then come back, and this repeated over the next few hours.  A couple times I went out to check on him and he was no where to be seen; but then suddenly he's behind me and tugging on my pant leg.  It startled me each time.  Then I'd turn and look down at him, looking into his eyes, well the one good eye and silently go "awwwwwww".

The pant leg tug, what's that all about?  Was he tamed by someone in the area?  Or was he unwell?  Signs of distemper include a loss of fear of humans and wandering about aimlessly.  He showed no fear of me and he was seemingly wandering about aimlessly.  Other signs include a rough coat of fur and an emaciated appearance.  Two more check marks.  

While I was in the basement with Angie having lunch, as our kitchen is under renovation, we saw him going back and forth along the walkway up the side of the house as he passed the basement windows.  Then he went up on the porch of the house next door.

After lunch I sought him out again.  He wasn't in the backyard.  I went out front and I found him like this at our front door.

Oh, those runny eyes.  Another sign of distemper.  I'm glad that I went out the back door when I decided to go look for him as opening the front door may have had him accidentally enter our house.

I started contacting "wildlife friends" who work with the Toronto Wildlife Centre seeking their opinion on this raccoon.  I suspected distemper, perhaps an early stage; but I wanted other opinions with more experience in this.  I sent photos and videos of him.  There was a lot of humming and hawing about it.  Nobody wanted to say it was distemper without being very certain.  So there was more monitoring of the animal and his behaviour.

Sadly as the day progressed he seemed to get worse; but with small moments of clarity in between.  I'd have another interaction with him and he'd be killing me as I was pulled into him emotionally through these "unique moments".

It was looking like I needed to trap him.  <insert sad face>  I have a live trap but it was at a friend's place who has been trying to catch a mange squirrel.  The trap may have been too small for this raccoon anyway; even though it has caught raccoons when I was trying to catch a sickly squirrel.  I ended up borrowing a larger live trap from TWC.  The drive there and back, being only 22 km in total, still took me an hour to do.  Gotta love traffic in Toronto!  I was getting antsy as with the daylight soon to be disappearing, it would be more challenging to catch him when the other animals may awaken and start to roam in search of something to eat.

I set the trap with a chicken leg inside.  The raccoon went for it.  He was pushing the trap around, and he triggered the door to shut.  I went out to reset the trap and the raccoon returned while I was doing this.  He was at my side for a moment before going around to the other side of the trap.  He put his front paws on the cage, like he was helping me move it.  Here we are almost face to face.  Yes, a good hard pull on my heart strings.  I reset the trap as he was sniffing around it.  He poked his head inside and I gave him a tap on his backside with my foot.  He ran into the trap, triggering the door, and that didn't seem to bother him at all as he ate the chicken.  I put a sheet over the cage and brought him out to the porch.  Then I made some phone calls.  I won't drag this last bit out but someone came for him within the hour.  I'm glad his time in this trap was quite short.

I'm no veterinarian; but this really did look like an early stage of distemper.  The disease is not treatable and I have seen it in it's later stages with raccoons and skunks.  It is horrible.  Euthanasia may seem cruel but it is the humane thing to do for them.  Canine distemper is highly transmissible to other animals including family pets like dogs and ferrets (not that I can see anyone letting their ferret outside).

I assume there will be some different emotions from people who read this tale.  I wasn't out to make anyone feel sad.  I just hope there's not too many saying "good, one less raccoon out there".  They're living creatures and just trying to live out their lives like the rest of us.  We can coexist with these very clever animals.  I'm always willing to talk with someone seeking advice on how to share our backyards with raccoons and the rest of the local wildlife.  My one line gets most...  "I'd rather look out to our yard and see a raccoon wandering around than seeing some stranger (human)."

Enjoy a few of my backyard raccoon photos here from the last number of years.

This one below is one of my favourites.  She was such an awesome mother and we were like baby sitters with her young one summer.  She laid out on the grass for a nap and let her kids monkey around the yard.  It was a memorable day.

I have fun adding words to some of my raccoon photos.

Raccoons, what's not to love?

F******************

Hey there.  Just a warning that this isn't a nice happy blog.  Something crappy happened recently.  Well, actually two crappy things.

I was out running some errands one morning and driving along our main road just down a bit from us, I passed a feathery lump in the middle of the road.  I instantly knew that it was a small owl.  I pulled over and picked up the body, which was whole and complete...  I wouldn't pick up a bloody mess is what I am trying to say.  The owl was an eastern screech owl.  >insert sad face<

We haven't seen a lot of our screech owl this winter and I've "blamed" the mild winter for that.  I don't know if this owl that I found was our backyard visitor or not.  Either way, it sucks!  Poor thing.  It must have been hunting roadside and was going for something, flying low across the road and got clipped by a car.  It probably hit the windshield and then bounced off, falling to the middle of the road.

We've not seen our backyard owl since February 2nd.  I found this dead owl on February 10th.  As I write this blog, it is now February 22nd.  We're supposed to be getting some really awful winter weather starting this afternoon and maybe we will see "our owl" again during it.  We can hope.

It's weird that in the days after that sad find, I've felt grief.  Grief over a little bird that surely didn't think much about me.  Grief over a little bird that may still be alive out there somewhere in our neighbourhood.  It's just that having an owl on one's property, and spending quite a few days here since December 2021, you can't help but get attached somehow.  It's been fun wondering some days if he was here or not.  There were days we didn't think he was here and then he would surprise us at the end of the day, suddenly popping his head out of the box.  So many mornings while having my first coffee and sitting at the kitchen window, I spotted him flying into the box to roost the day away.  Both Angie and I certainly felt blessed to have him here.  He owned the yard for the most part when we knew he was home.  We gave him all the space and I was able to occasionally take pictures of him from the deck because of my 500 mm lens.

I took this photo of Little Al on January 29th.  He showed up at the box after we got some accumulative snow overnight.  I remember how I was willing to bet anyone about his return that morning.  No one took me on that bet.

I'm debating as to whether or not share the photo I took of the owl's body on here.  It understandably upset most but they got why I shared the picture.  A few people really lashed out at me for sharing it.  So perhaps it is best I don't post the photo here.  If you look for me on Instagram at robandtheanimals, you can see it there (if you really want to see it).

Then the other sad thing is how we went from 3 backyard opossums in the fall to 1 opossum through the start of the new year.  Sadly he too crossed the main road last Thursday and was hit by a car.  I am sure it was him as my trail camera has not picked up an opossum since the night before.  Why must they cross the road?  He's been taking the gala apples that I have been leaving out for him along with some random piles of cat kibble.  Sure he must compete with the skunks and raccoons in their waking moments but he was getting a feed, at least with the apples regularly.  UGH!  There was no trying to get his body off the road though as it was way too messy.  I swear our main road here is like death valley for the wild ones.  There's a park on one side and a golf course on the other and the creatures do go back and forth.  It is heart breaking for any wildlife enthusiast to see this.  Raccoons, skunks, opossums, a few deer over the years, coyotes, foxes, owls, geese and various birds.  Blech!

I had an encounter with this opossum a few weeks ago.  He was frozen on the back fence for quite a while one night.  I got home from work and noticed the big lump.  I passed him a few times while doing things out back and he never moved.  After 20 minutes or so, being done my little chores, I walked right up to him.  He was motionless.  I put my hand on his back and gave him a few light strokes.  He turned his head slightly to give me a look but did not move otherwise.  

After I went back up to the house, I saw him climb down the fence and go under the shed.  Why did I touch his back?  Because I could!  Opossums are generally slow moving animals and don't react like other creatures.  Would I try to pat a raccoon?  Hell no!  Even my little backyard pal Ripper I wouldn't do something like that with.  He's my little buddy and sits nicely on my hand; but I know how "squirrely" squirrels can be and he'd bite me in a heartbeat if I spooked him and not think twice about it.  Oh Ripper, we all love you so!

Sorry for this rather negative blog but it's a bit of therapy for me.  I know the wild ones have a world of their own and it's unfortunate how we live ours and provide far too many dangers for them.  I embrace the time they spend here with us as they make my days (and life) better.

Lastly. a reminder that blogger made some changes and they took away the email notification option for whatever reason.  So I guess it is up to anyone who wishes to follow my blog posts to stop in periodically and not expect a notice from blogger about me sharing a new blog.

Also, someone asked about how long it has taken me to get Ripper and these pigeons to come to my hand.  Ripper showed up here over 5 years ago acting like this.  Someone else in their neighbourhood conditioned him to come to people for food.  Is that person still in the area?  Only Ripper knows.  As for the pigeons, it all started years ago with Pierre who also just appeared in the yard one day, totally cool with humans and he basically forced himself upon us that first weekend.  As the years went by, other pigeons took notice of Pierre getting good grub from my hand and some braved up, also coming to my hand, and continued to do so.  This is a continuing "thing" to this day.

Thanks for stopping in.  See you all again in a few weeks.