An old racoon is coming onto my back steps to eat the dry food I leave out for my two inside/outside cats. He is missing patches of fur and has sores where he is missing fur. When I tap on the glass to scare him away he leaves but not quickly. He moves slowly and as if he is in pain. The cats are afraid of him and keep a lookout when they go out. My friend Kevin thinks he is rabid because he is not that afraid of coming on my steps. I think he/she is just old and on his last legs. I feel sorry for him. It's probably the right thing to do to call animal control so they could catch him and put him down but I'm hesitating because, as I said, I feel for the old guy. Your opinion and advice about this, please.
From your description, he might not even be old, he just might have survived an attack by another animal, or even a fight with another racoon. It is spring, which is mating season for many creatures, so it is quite possible that he was in a fight because of that. This would cause him to lose hair and have sores, but being old would not necessarily cause that. If he is moving around and climbing your steps, and is aware when you tap to scare him, then he is probably not dying right now. You have to decide how you want to deal with this situation, but if he is not endangering either you or your cats, then (if it were me) I would give him some extra food, fruits and raw veggies, to help him get well faster, watch him and see if he was improving or getting worse, before I made a decision to have him trapped and put down. Animals like raccoons and opossums are used to being around people, and will make a habit of going where there is food; so I think it is that and not that he is rabid.
Thanks, Yvonne. I'll leave that extra food out for the time being. I may still call animal control if I think he is a danger.
So far as the rabies aspect goes, put some water out. Whilst in truth, rabies victims are Not hydrophobic, rabies makes it very painful to swallow hence their reluctance to drinking water. In short, if the raccoon isn’t salivating heavily and is drinking water, chances are the creature doesn’t have rabies and it probably is as Yvonne suggested. Edit: Because raccoons are fairly comfortable around humans (and our garbage) it could also be possible that a neighbor has set out rat poison and the critter got into it.
I can understand the concern about rabies, and would certainly understand if you were to err on the side of caution, and I don't think I would let my cats outside while he was around. Unfortunately, the only way that it can be diagnosed with rabies, as far as I am aware, would be for animal control to kill it. Of course, they could cage it and observe the progress but, in my experience, they would probably kill it. Complicating matters, raccoons who live near human habitations are often not afraid of people. Somewhere in this forum, I have posted a photo of one that was poking his head through our second-floor cat door and looking around as if it were curious, rather than afraid, despite the fact that my wife and I were both there, along with four very disturbed cats. My cats are terrified of raccoons, although they ignore skunks. When they come around for the food that I leave in a bowl on our second-floor fire escape for the squirrels, I have trouble getting them away from the bowl. Trying to shoo a raccoon away with a cane, it grabbed at the cane, forcing me to quickly shut the window to keep it from coming inside. I actually bought a battery-operated cattle prod, although I haven't had to use it. I doubt that these coons were rabid. They were just hungry, entitled, and belligerent. I trapped and released (miles from here) two of them who were becoming a frequent problem. One of them was fighting mad, and I was afraid it was going to attack me when I released it, while the other one calmly sauntered out of the cage, and looked around before walking into the woods, interestingly, taking the same path the other one had taken earlier. I had the feeling that I could pet him, although I wasn't going to try. In the early stage of rabies, an animal might not act so different from one that does not have rabies but I would think, and I am neither a veterinarian nor an animal expert, that by the time the disease would have an effect on its fur, it would have affected its mind as well, and probably wouldn't be so interested in eating or sufficiently alert to know where to find food. It's quite possible that he's just old and injured.
Thanks so much, Ken. You've cleared up some things for me. I'm going to assume he's old or injured or both and leave out vegetables for him/her in addition to the cat food. I'll try to get a picture and let you all know how it goes with him.
I've had a couple of raccoons as pets and I love raccoons, but they can be a problem. I wouldn't mind feeding one once in a while if it came around, but they eat an awful lot and they seem to have the habit of dumping out anything they don't eat. Plus, they crap right next to the bowl, and I'd rather not have raccoon crap on my fire escape or back landing.
Well I don't know about riding an alligator but I can tell ya a Racoon is one tough customer and extremely hard to kill unless you shoot him. They are pretty good at playing possum to escape as a last resort. One of my friends at my missile base had an invitation to go coon hunting with his girl friend's father. I went along as did a couple other guys. The dogs caught a large coon and were getting the upper hand so the old man hit it with the butt of his shotgun. It appeared to be dead and not moving, so the old man threw it into the trunk of the car and when he got home and opened the trunk the coon jumped out and hauled on out of the neighborhood. I witnessed that and thought to myself I want no part of making one mad at me.
This thread reminds me of the Raccoon Adventures of 2020. Here's one of two that my hubby trapped and relocated. (Full story in this thread... https://www.seniorsonly.club/thread...me-and-share-with-us.2372/page-22#post-442514 )