"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
Please tell all. "Raccoons in the garden" is an urg legend. For you to
have actually had some, in the UK, is roughly the equivalent of an
urgler reporting irrefutable evidence of fairies at the bottom of their
garden. Instant fame! :-)

Janet.

Our neighbours in Longwick used to be licensed dangerous wild animal
keepers. They had about 250 animals and birds, including rescued arctic
foxes, short-clawed otters, lemurs, coatimundi, marmosets, meerkats,
raccoons and more.
They used to rescue them from run-down zoos and over-ambitious private
keepers. They also took in sick birds that had been off-loaded at Heathrow.

One day Jan didn't latch the two security doors properly on the raccoon
enclosure. The raccoons shuffled out and spent a glorious few days exploring
the trees and stream at the bottom of neighbouring gardens. They would come
to within finger-tip distance if food was offered but shot off again if
anyone made a sudden move. Eventually they managed to net the female and put
her back into the enclosure. The male soon followed.

The collection was split up when poor health overtook them - I know they
made a huge effort to vet the new owners for suitability. But it did seem
odd when all the animals had gone - there's nothing quite like being woken
to a Kookaburra and laughing thrush duet for the dawn chorus.....

Janet Baraclough14/11/03 12:47

The message
from "Sue da Nimm" . contains these words:


"Alan Gabriel" wrote in message
...
Nah. It's racoons )

Mock not!
We had a pair of racoons in our garden in Buckinghamshire.
Not for long, though - they were trapped and returned to their owner.

Were you growing sweetcorn, at the time? :-)

Please tell all. "Raccoons in the garden" is an urg legend. For you to
have actually had some, in the UK, is roughly the equivalent of an
urgler reporting irrefutable evidence of fairies at the bottom of their
garden. Instant fame! :-)

Janet.



"Critters'! We have critters on urg!
--

Sacha
(remove the 'x' to email me)

Janet Baraclough wrote:

For you to
have actually had some, in the UK, is roughly the equivalent of an
urgler reporting irrefutable evidence of fairies at the bottom of their
garden. Instant fame! :-)

And as you doubtless know, for us lurking Murkens, "Coons" are certainly
NOT a mythical creature, though I wish they were. Also, a major reservoir
of rabies in the wild. It' s rumored that every raccoon carries a
saccharometer in his pocket, the better to know when the sweet corn is at
exactly the right stage!
We don't have hedgehogs though, more's the pity.
I've refrained at guessing what fauna might be living in that hole. Here
it would almost certainly be a woodchuck, known elsewhere as marmot, but I
didn't see a mention, so probably not resident there unless escaped.
Cold wind whistling about, so I'm going into "plan for spring" mode to
preserve what is left of my sanity.

Cheers!


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1200' elevation. NY WO G

The message
from Janet Baraclough contains these words:
The message
from "Sue da Nimm" . contains these words:
"Alan Gabriel" wrote in message
...

Nah. It's racoons )

Mock not!
We had a pair of racoons in our garden in Buckinghamshire.
Not for long, though - they were trapped and returned to their owner.

Were you growing sweetcorn, at the time? :-)

Please tell all. "Raccoons in the garden" is an urg legend. For you to
have actually had some, in the UK, is roughly the equivalent of an
urgler reporting irrefutable evidence of fairies at the bottom of their
garden. Instant fame! :-)

What's so odd about fairies at the bottom of your garden? I used to know
someone who lived in Govan.......

--
Rusty Hinge
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Please tell all. "Raccoons in the garden" is an urg legend. For you to
have actually had some, in the UK, is roughly the equivalent of an
urgler reporting irrefutable evidence of fairies at the bottom of their
garden. Instant fame! :-)

Janet.



Because you haven't seen them it's a 'Fairy Story' is it?

Do you believe in Ghosts?


--
Royal Naval Reunion Shanklin I.of Wight (Inc Ferry Fare) 30th Jan - 1st Feb
H.M.S.Andromeda Association Reunion Coventry Feb 27th - 29th
Federation of Naval Associations Reunion Hayling Island March 5th - 8th.
H.M.S.Loch Fada Association Reunion Scarborough April 2nd - 5th

Digging it today, so will find out.


"anne"

and nothing was heard of her again :-(((


No Flowers please by request.

Mike


--
Royal Naval Reunion Shanklin I.of Wight (Inc Ferry Fare) 30th Jan - 1st Feb
H.M.S.Andromeda Association Reunion Coventry Feb 27th - 29th
Federation of Naval Associations Reunion Hayling Island March 5th - 8th.
H.M.S.Loch Fada Association Reunion Scarborough April 2nd - 5th

The message
from "Sue da Nimm" . contains these words:

/snip/
The collection was split up when poor health overtook them - I know they
made a huge effort to vet the new owners for suitability. But it did seem
odd when all the animals had gone - there's nothing quite like being woken
to a Kookaburra and laughing thrush duet for the dawn chorus.....

I used to live near Banham Zoo, and some of the monkeys.........

--
Rusty Hinge
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from "Mike" contains these words:

Do you believe in Ghosts?

I've experienced some, yes.

--
Rusty Hinge
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from Jaques d'Alltrades contains these words:

The message
from Janet Baraclough contains these words:

Please tell all. "Raccoons in the garden" is an urg legend. For you to
have actually had some, in the UK, is roughly the equivalent of an
urgler reporting irrefutable evidence of fairies at the bottom of their
garden. Instant fame! :-)

What's so odd about fairies at the bottom of your garden? I used to know
someone who lived in Govan.......

Speaking as one who taught Marine Plumbers, one fears for the safety
of any fairy who dared enter the bottom of anything in Govan.

Janet

The message
from Gary Woods contains these words:

Janet Baraclough wrote:

For you to
have actually had some, in the UK, is roughly the equivalent of an
urgler reporting irrefutable evidence of fairies at the bottom of their
garden. Instant fame! :-)

And as you doubtless know, for us lurking Murkens, "Coons" are certainly
NOT a mythical creature, though I wish they were. Also, a major reservoir
of rabies in the wild.

We don't have rabies in the UK either.

We don't have hedgehogs though, more's the pity.

Maybe we could send you some..like we gave rabbits to Australia :-)

I've refrained at guessing what fauna might be living in that hole. Here
it would almost certainly be a woodchuck, known elsewhere as marmot, but I
didn't see a mention, so probably not resident there unless escaped.

Nah, we don't have those either. My guess is, too small to be a
badger, too smelly to be rabbits; could be a feral ferret or young fox
setting up home in an enlarged rabbit hole.

Cold wind whistling about, so I'm going into "plan for spring" mode to
preserve what is left of my sanity.

There has been (brief) snow on the mountain tops and the wind has
blown most of the leaves down off the trees; but our garden hasn't had a
frost yet and is fairly sheltered from the prevailing wind. The
following are in flower; hebes, prostanthera, argyranthemum, verbenas,
escallonias, ceanothus, acidanthera, yellow crocosmia, schizostylis,
rose Alastair Stella Gray, orange-peel clematis, mahonia, fuchsias,
viburnum bodnantense, herbaceous salvias, hellebores and bellis daisies.

Janet. (Isle of Arran)

".......... Digging it today, so will find out.

"anne"

and nothing was heard of her again :-((( ................"

I was thinking the same........
Was it the nocturnal Bramble lurker (Dracularia spinosa nocturnulosa) that
got her?

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from Gary Woods contains these words:

Janet Baraclough wrote:

For you to
have actually had some, in the UK, is roughly the equivalent of an
urgler reporting irrefutable evidence of fairies at the bottom of their
garden. Instant fame! :-)

And as you doubtless know, for us lurking Murkens, "Coons" are certainly
NOT a mythical creature, though I wish they were. Also, a major
reservoir
of rabies in the wild.

We don't have rabies in the UK either.

We don't have hedgehogs though, more's the pity.

Maybe we could send you some..like we gave rabbits to Australia :-)

I've refrained at guessing what fauna might be living in that hole.
Here
it would almost certainly be a woodchuck, known elsewhere as marmot, but
I
didn't see a mention, so probably not resident there unless escaped.

Nah, we don't have those either. My guess is, too small to be a
badger, too smelly to be rabbits; could be a feral ferret or young fox
setting up home in an enlarged rabbit hole.

[snip]

Anne was going to dig it out a few days ago, and we have not heard from her
since. Can we be sure she survived the exercise?

Franz

The message
from Janet Baraclough contains these words:

We don't have hedgehogs though, more's the pity.

Maybe we could send you some..like we gave rabbits to Australia :-)

In return for the grey tree-rats - er sorry - sqrls?

--
Rusty Hinge
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from Janet Baraclough contains these words:
The message
from Jaques d'Alltrades contains these words:
The message
from Janet Baraclough contains these words:

Please tell all. "Raccoons in the garden" is an urg legend. For you to
have actually had some, in the UK, is roughly the equivalent of an
urgler reporting irrefutable evidence of fairies at the bottom of their
garden. Instant fame! :-)

What's so odd about fairies at the bottom of your garden? I used to know
someone who lived in Govan.......

Speaking as one who taught Marine Plumbers, one fears for the safety
of any fairy who dared enter the bottom of anything in Govan.

I never realised marine plumbers were like that......

--
Rusty Hinge
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Janet Baraclough wrote in
:

I've refrained at guessing what fauna might be living in that hole.
Here it would almost certainly be a woodchuck, known elsewhere as
marmot, but I didn't see a mention, so probably not resident there
unless escaped.

Nah, we don't have those either.

*cough*

Actually there are (or used to be) some around Chester, escaped from the
colony at the zoo...

Victoria