# Hey, Roomie! It's not cats! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 30, 2007, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016 "2007-09-30T08:05:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/21 "2007-09-30T23:56:27Z")
[QUOTE=Wile E] Lasers locked on! [/QUOTE] Did the lasers come from the ACME company? šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/22 "2007-10-01T04:06:34Z")
The eyesā€¦canā€™t look awayā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/23 "2007-10-01T16:21:58Z")
Adorable and cute, but Iā€™ll add to the noise - donā€™t feed them. They make very bad neighbors - and you arenā€™t doing them any favors either. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/24 "2007-10-01T16:47:16Z")
I grew up in the sticks with lots of critters around, including raccoons. Some of my friends and neighbors would try and domesticate the orphaned or injured, and it rarely ever worked out very well for either party. My parents encouraged me to satisfy my youthful urges to have a pet raccoon, or a pet otter, or a pet quail by reading books like _Frosty: A Raccoon to Remember_, _Ring of Brightwater_, _That Quail Robert_ and the like. With my Momā€™s help I once raised a pair of baby jack rabbits that had been ā€œorphanedā€ (read: found by kid in my class who was quite find of shooting rabbits with his Dad on the weekends). We bottle fed them and got them to the point of eating solid food and about 1/2 grown and then let them go in the forests that surround our house in the boonies. I have no idea if they had any chance of living normal jack rabbit lives, but they had more of a chance than when they were just sucklings. Anywho, sorry for the tangent, but for anyone reading who loves raccoons and has kids, _Frosty_ is a great book. ---
**Author:** ![ForumBot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@ForumBot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ForumBot)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/25 "2007-10-01T17:00:25Z")
Screw racoons. My ex-girlfriend would NOT listen to me and left cat food out for the poor widdle stray kitty-witties (but theyā€™re hungry!), and of course we had a new coon friend within a week. I chased him around with a pole screaming like a madman for a week until he either decided to give up or come at hours when I wasnā€™t awake. I got a reprimand from the apartment manager for waking up the neighbors with all my hootinā€™ and hollerinā€™ and general hootenanyinā€™, but god damn was it fun. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/26 "2007-10-01T18:35:33Z")
A few years ago, my cat escaped. I went door to door looking for him. A few houses down the street, the lady said she was very sorry to have to tell me a raccoon _ate_ my kitty in her back yard. She watched, in horror from inside her kitchen. They arenā€™t nice or cute, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/27 "2007-10-01T18:48:14Z")
Ever heard a racoon stuck in a dumpster? It sounds like Linda Blair in the Exorcist fighting it out with Sam Kinison and Pee Wee Herman. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/28 "2007-10-01T19:17:33Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] Ever heard a racoon stuck in a dumpster? It sounds like Linda Blair in the Exorcist fighting it out with Sam Kinison and Pee Wee Herman. [/QUOTE] That has got to be one of the most frighteningly accurate descriptions of raccoon shrieks I have ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/29 "2007-10-01T19:20:01Z")
[QUOTE=picunurse] A few years ago, my cat escaped. I went door to door looking for him. A few houses down the street, the lady said she was very sorry to have to tell me a raccoon _ate_ my kitty in her back yard. She watched, in horror from inside her kitchen. They arenā€™t nice or cute, IMO. [/QUOTE] :eek: She didnā€™t think to maybe, I dunno, turn on the hose so the raccoon would stop eating what is clearly someoneā€™s pet? ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/30 "2007-10-01T19:26:31Z")
Iā€™m kind of jealous. Iā€™ve never actually seen a raccoon. Up at my university, their ecological niche seems to have been taken up by other critters: the ravens destroy trash cans and set off car alarms for their own amusement, the skunks smell funny and chase humans away from the footpaths, and the foxes like to nest under porches and make a racket when you try to shoo them out. Oh, and the bats take care of our yearly quota of rabies cases. Iā€™d love to see all of these stellar qualities combined in one creature, just once. I imagine it wouldnā€™t take too long for this sort of super-animal to discourage the freshmen from going after the local fauna with squirt guns. šŸ˜› ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/31 "2007-10-01T19:26:57Z")
**DiosaBellissima** , I think you may be being too hard on her. Full-grown raccoons are not small: theyā€™re a match for many dogs, let alone cats. Iā€™m not sure Iā€™d want to confront an enraged raccoon, myself. Also the shock may well have simply paralyzed her. It happens. Unless people are trained in dealing with crisis situations most peopleā€™s first reaction to any kind of shocking event is to freeze. Given that she said that the raccoon was eating the cat I donā€™t think that confronting the raccoon would have saved the cat. With nothing to be gained, and some real risks involved, I donā€™t think Iā€™d have tried confronting that raccoon, myself. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/32 "2007-10-01T20:06:11Z")
As a Torontonian Iā€™ll echo what \*\*Malthus \*\*posted above. I love raccoons. Love love love them. They really are amazingly intelligent creatures. So I canā€™t really hold it against them that theyā€™re such jerks to us humans - I probably would be too, if I was a raccoon. But my love, while deep, is marked by respectful distance, periodic annoyance, and occasional terror. Do not feed them, because it will only encourage them to cut a key to your home and start helping themselves to your groceries and getting comfy on the couch. And donā€™t think you can get rid of them with a squirt gun (or even a giant pit bull - trust me on this one.) I donā€™t know any other animal for whom it is LESS true that ā€œheā€™s more scared of us than we are of him!ā€ ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/33 "2007-10-01T20:19:29Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] **DiosaBellissima** , I think you may be being too hard on her. Full-grown raccoons are not small: theyā€™re a match for many dogs, let alone cats. Iā€™m not sure Iā€™d want to confront an enraged raccoon, myself. [/QUOTE] All good points. Iā€™ll be completely honest and say Iā€™ve only ever seen a raccoon at the local ā€œzooā€, so itā€™s true that I have no real experience with the buggers. I donā€™t even know if they are around here (Bakersfield, CA). We have lots of Kit foxes everywhere, but those certainly donā€™t eat cats- I see the cats at the apartment complex chasing them out every night. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/34 "2007-10-01T20:51:17Z")
[North American distribution of _Prycyon lotor_](http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Vertebrata/Mammalia/Procyonidae/Procyon/lotor/images/Procyon_lotor_map.mx.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/35 "2007-10-01T20:52:36Z")
[QUOTE=cowgirl] As a Torontonian Iā€™ll echo what \*\*Malthus \*\*posted above. I love raccoons. Love love love them. They really are amazingly intelligent creatures. So I canā€™t really hold it against them that theyā€™re such jerks to us humans - I probably would be too, if I was a raccoon. But my love, while deep, is marked by respectful distance, periodic annoyance, and occasional terror. Do not feed them, because it will only encourage them to cut a key to your home and start helping themselves to your groceries and getting comfy on the couch. And donā€™t think you can get rid of them with a squirt gun (or even a giant pit bull - trust me on this one.) I donā€™t know any other animal for whom it is LESS true that ā€œheā€™s more scared of us than we are of him!ā€ [/QUOTE] Want to know what gave me a real laugh? The fact that the series of movies based on _Resident Evil_ takes place in a city known as ā€œRaccoon Cityā€. Which happens to have been filmed in ā€¦ Toronto! šŸ˜ƒ How appropriate is _that_? Raccoons really are amazing animals - they are almost human-like in their intelligence, their ferocity, their tenacity and their dexterity. If they were rare, Iā€™d be thrilled to bits seeing one in the wild. šŸ˜› As it is ā€¦ Iā€™ve had my garbage ā€œcoonedā€ (meaning strewn all over the yard for inspection and selection of tasty bits), stuff stolen, yard grubbed up; Iā€™ve chased them out of my garage; Iā€™ve had sleep interrupted by their infernal screetching and fighting during mating season - a racket it is hard to believe; Iā€™ve had to face them down and been damn near mugged by them in dark alleys (they only fear people if you are holding a stick or some other sort of weapon) ā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/36 "2007-10-01T21:35:30Z")
[QUOTE=ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies] [North American distribution of _Prycyon lotor_](http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Vertebrata/Mammalia/Procyonidae/Procyon/lotor/images/Procyon_lotor_map.mx.jpg) [/QUOTE] That map canā€™t be right - it shows Vanvoucer Island as being raccoon-free, but I can tell you that that is definitely not the case. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/37 "2007-10-01T21:36:24Z")
šŸ˜• :eek: DEMON DOGS!!! ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/38 "2007-10-01T21:43:04Z")
[QUOTE=DiosaBellissima] :eek: She didnā€™t think to maybe, I dunno, turn on the hose so the raccoon would stop eating what is clearly someoneā€™s pet? [/QUOTE] It wouldnā€™t have done any good. By the time she looked outside, Bartlett was dead. The raccoon might have turned on her, had she gone outside. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/39 "2007-10-01T22:13:33Z")
[QUOTE=Manduck] That map canā€™t be right - it shows Vanvoucer Island as being raccoon-free, but I can tell you that that is definitely not the case. [/QUOTE] [This one](http://www.nmnh.si.edu/msw/images/p_lotor.gif) includes Vancouver Island in their range. Perhaps it argued by some mammalogists that they were introduced there? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016/40 "2007-10-01T22:24:55Z")
My parents had a family of raccoons living in their chimney. Thank god they didnā€™t use the fireplace! We have (had) a family in a partially dead tree in our side yard. They are devious demons of garbageā€“I canā€™t stand the critters. I used to think they looked cute. But cleaning up garbage more than once got me over that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-roomie-its-not-cats/421016.md?page=3)