Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Cat Watch - Day 121

The last few nights I've woken up to Francesca and Thurston's feeder being tumped over. I pick it up, refill it, then it happens again. The last time I did it, I left the cat food bag outside so I wouldn't have to carry it from the garage to the back porch every morning.


I figured one of the cats turned crazy and decided to tump it over. Cats are unstable. No surprise.


Last night, while Heather and I were watching Lost, I heard a ruckus on the back porch. I got up to discover that we were being victimized by an intruder.





One of those is the police sketch of the intruder, not the actual raccoon.

Under the theory of you feed it - you name it, I get to name him or her now. So far, I've just yelled "git!" at it. I don't think I really want to have a pet raccoon anyway. Having another cat to feed was fine, but this guy has an incredible metabolism. He eats a ton. One raccoon equals at least five cats. I would imagine the cats aren't thrilled with the company of a wild animal either. I could call in a professional, but if the Critter Getters charge $285 to remove a mouse, I doubt I can afford to hire a raccoon wrangler.

Four months ago, Francesca was living the good life of an inside cat; now she competes for food with this scrappy beast.


It's a long way down for our little house kitty.

10 comments:

  1. STOP IT.....YOU'RE KILLIN' ME!!!! I have to re-do my mascara - AGAIN!!

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  2. You know they carry distemper and rabies, right? And his twenty closest friends will soon join him for supper. :(

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  3. Anon 2, Cat / Raccoon / Disease plan of action is as follows:

    1. Francesca is due for a booster – appointment tomorrow morning.
    2. Remove food from back porch and feed in the morning and then remove food and water.
    3. Watch for signs of rabies in cat(s) for 10 days from when we saw the raccoon.
    4. Maybe trap or kill the raccoon, but probably not necessary.

    There have been no reports of rabid raccoons in our area recently. I talked to our vet, county animal control, city animal control and someone with county department of health. I don’t know the rules for killing or trapping raccoons yet, but I have a design in mind for a nice hat for Henry if I decide to do it. Thanks for the heads up.

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  4. I'm just trying to figure out what "tump" means...

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  5. Tump means "over turn."

    Example: Jim Bob got drunk bass fishing on Saturday. As he was fixing to pull up to the dock, he stood up and tumped the boat over.

    One would never "tump" a bottle of pop though.

    See?

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  6. I also had never heard the word "tump" when I met Gary. When I mentioned this, I was treated as though I was clearly an imbecile for not knowing what tump means. I'm glad to see others calling him out on his made-up word.

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  7. Gary for President.

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  8. I thought my friend from Mississippi made up "tump over" as the combo of "tip over" and "dump over". Glad to knows it has spread far and wide.

    Christy H.

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  9. Maybe next time you run into those friendly Judgers at Aldridge you can ask them how they'd handle this situation? Seriously, that is one fearless raccoon. I might have to sleep with the light on tonight.

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  10. Our George and raccoons get along just fine. They learn to co-exist---only George takes his meal inside and then he goes out and taunts the coon, who inevitably will be attempting to tump the garbage can.

    Good luck.

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