Wednesday, March 04, 2009
A Bandit Visitor
This rascal has been making him/herself at home in my back yard for the last few weeks. It comes up after dark and looks for scraps we have thrown out for the cats and stray pieces of cat food. It seems utterly fearless of humans. It doesn't run away when I open the window, when I throw it pieces of food and will actually climb up on that pallet and look right at me when it wants more food. I know it's a wild animal and I shouldn't feed it....but I am a softie when it comes to animals and can't resist. Raccoon's are so darn cute!
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6 comments:
It is for cases like this that the oral rabies vaccine needs to be made available. But, the veterinarian associations fight every effort to make more available.
jim gundlach
jim I didn't know that vet associations fought to keep oral rabies vaccine unavailable. That is beyond stupid. Is there somewhere I can get more information to combat that?
BTW, all of my cats and my dog have been vaccinated against rabies. I would love to have some oral vaccine available outside. Not only do we have raccoons, we also have bob cats and other animals susceptible to rabies. A lot of old hardwood forest has been obliterated just behind our property line and all of the forest creatures that lived there have moved over to my place. Plus there are a lot of stray dogs and cats around who I am pretty sure have never seen a vet in their life.
anon beat me with a better comment than mine. I was just gonna' say that Raccoons that don’t act naturally, i.e., being wary of humans, sometimes have rabies, or so I’ve heard.
I've heard that too Don...but always with the 'if you see them during the day it's rabies' clause.
The raccoon does run away if my dog comes to the window though and he drinks water out of the cat dish so I think he is probably rabies negative. Would be nice to have some of that vaccine available for him though. I think I'll call my vet today and see if he has any or knows where I can get some. There is nothing I can do to keep the critter away short of killing him and I ain't about to do that. Don't have the heart for that kind of stuff.
We see a lot of raccoons in Astoria. It is not unusual to see them running around at night or even occasionally during the day. I understand that our 'coons get pretty big around this part of the country.
One thing a friend discovered is that they love laser pointers. They will happily chase that little red dot all over the place. Cats and dogs enjoy that as well.
The oral vaccine is restricted to the US department of agriculture's Wildlife Services National Rabies Management Program. The only chance the public has of getting their hands on some is picking it up in a drop area. Google "Oral Rabies Vaccine" and the first link will take you to information about the program. There is also a map that shows raccoons are the major source of the virus in our area.
jim gundlach
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