Yikes. Glad we don't have Racoon's here. It makes me wonder though, if "scraps" are plentiful in the new green bins, why work harder for you food by attacking pets? Unless they have a preferred taste for blood? My boyfriend watched his cat get taken by a Bald Eagle when he was a kid. He said it was pretty traumatizing to watch being so helpless to do anything about it.

 

I have to take in all the bird feeders at night because of the racoons and the bears. (They rip them down and empty them.) Midnight, the wild cat has made peace with the foxes but I don't know what he does with the racoons and bears. He is a pretty cagy guy and is good at "Making himself Small", since we have a lot of woods and brush. Possums are a problem too, taking over the outside house to the point where if Midnight is in the garage for the night in the Winter, I have to bring in the outside house.

 

Yeah, I saw that article, seeing as that's the city I live in I get the daily paper. My dad kinda shook his head at the article.

I've never seen any raccoons around here, on the road, dead, at night, signs that they're eating garbage, etc. (ok wait - once I saw them mating on a roof across from me - scariest noises ever!) ... and the raccoons at the cabin in the gulf islands have never shown any sign of aggression towards our family cats for 50 years - just curiosity and a healthy distance, in fact many years ago a cat lived for several years with them in harmony. So... I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing, since my experiences with them have all been positive

 

Rabies swept through the raccoon population where I live in the mid-1990s. They went from abundant to non-existant. Over the last five years, they are back in numbers.

Clever raccoons were figuring out a way to get in my feral cat barn, in spite of many controls I used. They ate a lot of food and I worried about them attacking my cats.

I set up my night vision camera a few weeks ago because there were signs a raccoon was conducting a midnight raid. One of the photos that was recorded showed a smallish raccoon eating side by side with my male cat TJ.

That was too close for comfort, though they apparently tolerated each other. That bad boy was quickly trapped and re-located.

 

I set up my night vision camera a few weeks ago because there were signs a raccoon was conducting a midnight raid. One of the photos that was recorded showed a smallish raccoon eating side by side with my male cat TJ.

That was too close for comfort, though they apparently tolerated each other. That bad boy was quickly trapped and re-located.

That's just it, I think most often cats and raccoons co-exist quite well. If not, there would be reports like this daily, considering there are outdoor cats and raccoons all across North America. The article even states "Wildlife experts in B.C. have said fights between the two species do happen from time to time, but that instances of raccoons hunting and attacking cats are rare."

Everything I've ever seen of them interacting supports this - and I've seen a lot of interaction! My entire summers (~2 months) when younger were spent at the cabin and to this day I spend about a month there in total over the year, there's always 10-20 raccoons milling around our property all day and night and I've never seen anything that's been a cause for alarm, and our cats spend the entire day outside over there. The few times we ran into problems was when the Jack Russell initiated attacks with them, then we'd have the raccoons ganging up on the dog to protect themself.

Cats avoid the raccoons, raccoons avoid the cats, and rarely, they even get along together. There's always going to rare incidents occurring out of the norm, but it's not something I'm going to lose sleep over.

 

I would do more than throw things at those raccoons if they had one of my babies. Good on her for saving her kitty though.

 

A number of years ago I came across a mother raccoon and four younger ones (call them teens) in my garden. I wanted them out and started throwing stones. The mother made some sort of signal and the younger ones ran while she challenged me until they'd gone. Their claws are very sharp and they are reputed to carry serious infective microbes.

They are not only predators, but also scavengers, and clean up whatever dead stuff they find.

We have wheelie bins for out garbage. One night I heard a thump, and in the morning discovered the bin lying on its side with the garbage strewn around. A close inspection of the lid showed little paw marks. In certain positions the bins are badly balanced. The 'coons have learned how to tip them. Quite smart creatures.

 

First I'd like to say that anybody around here, Vancouver, who leaves a cat out all night and then professes to have loved it when it gets predated needs to be abandoned in the rain forest when the cougars are prowling.

I've just laid out a fabulous sum of money because the raccoons who live in the huge evergreens next door tore holes in my roof.

I one time fed a feral tom who'd roamed this area for at least ten years. He was a predator and a great hunter who fed himself for years. Then he started growing old and falling asleep, totally asleep, and one night the raccoons got him. He was dying and didn't want inside. The predator predated. A natural end. The next door neighbour had cats, and a cat door. She found a raccoon in her basement looking for the cats. The previous owner of that house came across his cat fighting with a group of raccoons.

The people on the other side have recently (couple of years) aquired a cat (it adopted them) that was seen fighting with raccoons. It's not a big cat, but well muscled.

Cats and raccoons do not 'get along'.

 

I found one in my house a few years ago. He got in through a window, ransacked the kitchen, generally made a mess of everything else. Scared the poop out of me when I got home, he was sitting on the counter looking straight at me. Now I have an airsoft pellet gun by the front door just for such occasions. I live in the woods so it is a regular occurrence to get them in the garage, but thank god I haven't had one in the house since then.