coons and possums

[Tom W.]

I keep an old crock pot interior just outside the back porch, that I put the leftovers in. We get all sorts of coons and possums coming to feed in it, and an occasional fox or two. They have come up the steps and on to the back porch to eat the cat food, if the cat isn't around to run them off. My wife and I often sit and watch them come up, and the animals are cautious, but not afraid.
 At one time we kept the cat food in a large plastic hamper on the back porch, but my wife noticed that the "stray" cats had knocked it down a time or two. I heard a noise about three nights later and went to investigate. I saw a large coon reaching up and opening the lid of the hamper. I very slowly eased open the door, and watched as the critter would put his paws up under the lid and push up, then get back down and look around. Seeing no danger, the coon finally pushed up the lid and stuck his head under it in an attempt to pull himself into it. At that time I stuck my left arm out of the door and swatted the lid, with the coon halfway inside. He jumped back, took about three steps away, and looked around ,very confused. I suppose he finally decided it was time to leave, before the rest of the sky fell down upon him.

[Dan Mich Trapper]

I remember one time when I was about 11 , we had a skunk in our basement . One of the basement windows was broken and he musta got in that way . I was down there ( not yet knowing the skunk was also down there ) looking for something my mom sent me down for . I was pawing through a box of stuff and out of the corner of my eye I saw something move . I turned and looked and this big skunk walked within two feet of me, just walking by like he had somewhere to go . I jumped and started running upstairs screaming AHHHHHH , SKUNK !!!!!That was all I could say all the way up the stairs . We tried to lure it out by putting bacon on the steps and leaving the back door open all night . He would come to the top of the stairs and eat all ythe bacon but would turn around and go back down . It turned into an awfull mess , we tried to live trap it but that didnt work either. My dad tried different things for about a week and as a last resort he finally told the dog to go ahead , she killed the critter but not without it spraying . Best part of the deal was we got to take a couple days off school do to the awful stench that we aquired .The house actually aired out to a tollerable level in about a week .

[Old Griz]

A friend of mine used to work with Outward Bound. As part of the program the "students" have to spend three days alone in the wilderness living off the land. This is called "Solo." Well, while the students are doing without, the instructors get anything they want packed in to them during those three days. One of the guys wanted some butterscotch pudding, so they brought him a #10 can of butterscotch pudding. Well, all the instructors got what they wanted and that hardly made a dent in that #10 can. As they were sitting by the fire talking that night the "grand-daddy of all racoons," as he was described, came out of the woods and walked right up to them. He was huge, for a racoon, and his face was all gray. He snarled at them and they saw he hardly had any teeth left. He turned toward that #10 can of butterscotch pudding and stuck his head down in it and ate until he couldn't eat any more. He waddled back to the edge of the woods and they could hear him throwing up! A few minutes later, here he comes back again. Sticks his head down in that can and begins eating butterscotch pudding again. He waddles back to the woods again, throws up again, AND comes back again. This time he finished it all, looked around at the guys as if to say, "You better not be holding out on me," and disappeared into the woods.

When I was in the 5th grade I traded all my Halloween candy for butterscotch. I wound up with a whole bag of butterscotch. I ate the whole thing. To this day butterscotch has the same effect on me that it did with that coon!