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Our son and his GF found a five week old coon on the side of the road, abandoned, and brought it home. At first they bottle fed it, then fed him cat food. They named him Ronnie. We don't have rabies up in this area (too cold), they kept him with them in their room with them. Slept like a baby on their bed with their cats. He either used a news paper to go on, or they took him outside to do his business, but one day toilet trained himself to urinate in the toilet after watching our son using the toilet one day. Unbelievable how smart they are. He rode with them in the car and looked out the window like a dog. They even took him camping and he would scamper around, but rarely wandered far from them.
Once he was older, we fixed up a stall in our barn for him, kept him in there for his own safety for 6 months and slowly released him to the wild. He never turned mean and bit anyone, but he would warn you if he was eating, and you learned to listen and respect.
He thrived in the wild, but came almost every day up onto our deck to eat our leftovers, cat food and black sunflower seeds. He also loved hotdogs. He started showing up with a female and one baby. (maybe it was his?) One day when he was 23, he just stopped coming, and we don't know if he was killed by something, or someone, or wandered away. We miss him a lot, but we now have other wild coons coming up onto our deck for their evening treats.
What a nice relationship you managed to forge, to the benefit of all.
My sister has a similar one with a couple of her released coons. They visit semi-regularly but spend 98% of the time doing what raccoons do in the wild. But it's always a treat to see, and spend a little time with them.
Our son and his GF found a five week old coon on the side of the road, abandoned, and brought it home. At first they bottle fed it, then fed him cat food. They named him Ronnie. We don't have rabies up in this area (too cold), they kept him with them in their room with them. Slept like a baby on their bed with their cats. He either used a news paper to go on, or they took him outside to do his business, but one day toilet trained himself to urinate in the toilet after watching our son using the toilet one day. Unbelievable how smart they are. He rode with them in the car and looked out the window like a dog. They even took him camping and he would scamper around, but rarely wandered far from them.
Once he was older, we fixed up a stall in our barn for him, kept him in there for his own safety for 6 months and slowly released him to the wild. He never turned mean and bit anyone, but he would warn you if he was eating, and you learned to listen and respect.
He thrived in the wild, but came almost every day up onto our deck to eat our leftovers, cat food and black sunflower seeds. He also loved hotdogs. He started showing up with a female and one baby. (maybe it was his?) One day when he was 23, he just stopped coming, and we don't know if he was killed by something, or someone, or wandered away. We miss him a lot, but we now have other wild coons coming up onto our deck for their evening treats.
Nice story...but your son is shacked up with his girlfriend and he still lives at home?
Also, raccoons don't live to be 23 so I have to wonder what you meant.
Back in the day, as someone has said, when there were still small mom and pop grocery stores, a couple who had one of these stores also had a pet racoon. They lived in the back of the store and always kept the door between house and store tightly shut to keep the pet coon out. Somehow, one night while they were out, the coon discovered that someone hadn't shut the door like they should have and went exploring! They came home to a mess of broken jars and paw prints on every bit of the meat! Had to throw it all away and with no insurance covering animals getting in the meat department. lol
I tossed some stale rolls out into the backyard last evening - for the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks, I thought.
Instead, when I was closing up the house around 11:00, I discovered a young raccoon, standing on his hind legs and chowing down on a roll with both hands! He was the first raccoon I've spotted this season - probably born last fall or in late summer, I'd guess.
About that time, my cat, whom I'd let out for a brief pre-bedtime break just five minutes before, came around the corner, and the 'coon, who was about the same size and who shared my tabby's stripes, retreated to the darkened, shady part of the yard where the floodlight doesn't shine. The cat came in with no coaxing, tail all puffed up - seems each of the striped ones had spooked the other!
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