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Garden visitor
In article ,
"Priscilla H. Ballou" wrote: In article , "FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote: Friends had some significant domestic disbliss in their house with all members of the house accused of eating the best pieces of fruit from the fruit bowl before anyone else could have any with furious denials and counter accusations all round. After some time, it turned out that the fruit bowl, which used to sit on a table just under an opened unscreened window 2 floors up (in the Aussie tropics), was visited regularly by a possum who ate the best bits. LOL Another friend whose lady left him and who suffered severe loneliness as a result, took to divering himself by taming a local possum mother and her baby. He took to having dessert on his back deck where he would sit eating his fruit and laying out a slice on the floor for the possum until she became so tame that she'd take it from his hand. They are very, very cute animals until one has one in the ceiling cavity or attacking one's fruit. At that stage murder is a good option. When I was a kid, my grandfather had established a similar relationship with a mama raccoon and her babies at his cabin on a lake in Michigan. We'd sit on the back patio in the summer evening and offer bits of food to the family, and they'd take them from our hands, the babies learning fro their mother. Raccoon hands/paws are very interesting to touch -- leathery and dry. Excellent childhood memory. ;-) Nowadays in my urban neighborhood, any "wild" animal that would allow one that close is suspect for rabies. A family of raccoons who were living in an abandoned house fairly near me were exterminated because one of them was rabid (which meant all could soon become rabid). I think that was the same family whose babies climbed all over the back of my house and would be deterred by nothing short of my doing my "mean schoolmarm" impression out of a second floor window. While my "mad cat" noises brought no interest from them, that impression of a strict lady in corset and shoes which are too tight who was referring to them as "young man!" scared the bejeezus out of them and sent them hightailing out of my yard. Saw one possum once, but he was in sad shape, having apparently been attacked by another animal. Similarly we have no skunks now, although we did when I bought my house in 1998. Priscilla Unfortunately, rabies isn't the only game in town. http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7...-27261--,00.ht ml -- - Billy Mad dog Republicans to the right. Democratic spider webs to the left. True conservatives, and liberals not to be found anywhere in the phantasmagoria of the American political landscape. America is not broke. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich. http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/.../michael-moore /michael-moore-says-400-americans-have-more-wealth-/ |
#2
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Garden visitor
In article
, Billy wrote: In article , "Priscilla H. Ballou" wrote: In article , "FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote: Friends had some significant domestic disbliss in their house with all members of the house accused of eating the best pieces of fruit from the fruit bowl before anyone else could have any with furious denials and counter accusations all round. After some time, it turned out that the fruit bowl, which used to sit on a table just under an opened unscreened window 2 floors up (in the Aussie tropics), was visited regularly by a possum who ate the best bits. LOL Another friend whose lady left him and who suffered severe loneliness as a result, took to divering himself by taming a local possum mother and her baby. He took to having dessert on his back deck where he would sit eating his fruit and laying out a slice on the floor for the possum until she became so tame that she'd take it from his hand. They are very, very cute animals until one has one in the ceiling cavity or attacking one's fruit. At that stage murder is a good option. When I was a kid, my grandfather had established a similar relationship with a mama raccoon and her babies at his cabin on a lake in Michigan. We'd sit on the back patio in the summer evening and offer bits of food to the family, and they'd take them from our hands, the babies learning fro their mother. Raccoon hands/paws are very interesting to touch -- leathery and dry. Excellent childhood memory. ;-) Nowadays in my urban neighborhood, any "wild" animal that would allow one that close is suspect for rabies. A family of raccoons who were living in an abandoned house fairly near me were exterminated because one of them was rabid (which meant all could soon become rabid). I think that was the same family whose babies climbed all over the back of my house and would be deterred by nothing short of my doing my "mean schoolmarm" impression out of a second floor window. While my "mad cat" noises brought no interest from them, that impression of a strict lady in corset and shoes which are too tight who was referring to them as "young man!" scared the bejeezus out of them and sent them hightailing out of my yard. Saw one possum once, but he was in sad shape, having apparently been attacked by another animal. Similarly we have no skunks now, although we did when I bought my house in 1998. Priscilla Unfortunately, rabies isn't the only game in town. http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7...-27261--,00.ht ml It was over 50 years ago we fed those raccoons, and I'm now on the east coast and not in Michigan, so this doesn't scare me any. Priscilla -- "What you fail to understand is that criticising established authority by means of argument and evidence is a crucial aspect of how science works." - Chris Malcolm |
#3
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Garden visitor
Billy wrote:
Unfortunately, rabies isn't the only game in town. http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12150_12220-27261--,00.html And then, there's distemper http://www.nwcn.com/news/King-County...-91049014.html |
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