Raccoons are very intelligent, adaptable and are omnivores, they will eat anything. At one time, in the 1930's, they were considered to be used in the lab to study, but the raccoons figured out how to open their cages, stole things out of the technicians' lab coat pockets and got into the ventilation duct system. They paws are very sensitive. They can feel things and manipulate objects. They learn from experience and from demonstration. The kits, young raccoons, learn how to do things from their mothers. They remember how to do a task for up to three years. They prefer to live in deciduous woodland areas, but can live anywhere. It's no wonder that raccoons have invaded our urban areas.
A couple of weeks ago, Tulip got me up around 1:00 a.m. to go out. She bolted out and immediately ran into something that she was viciously barking at. I went out to see what was going on, worried that it was one of the feral cats. I heard something that was making unusual noises at her. It was bigger than a cat and it scurried off when I went out. I grabbed at the dog as it scrambled over the fence. After that I stopped leaving cat food over night.
This evening about 7:00 p.m., I heard a commotion out side the back, sliding glass door in a sheltered overhang where I have tender plants and the cat food during the day. As I looked out of the window, two masked faces turned toward me. There were two large raccoons looking for food in the empty cat food bowls .Apparently they knew that there was food here, but since I stopped leaving out at night, they thought to check if there was food out earlier in the evening. I had to tap on the glass before they would run away. So we have raccoons. I guessed that there were skunks and rats, the feral cats take care of them, but I never would think that we would have raccoons too!
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