What the hell?!? It's like the Animal Planet channel around here.

[denbot]

Two nights ago, I was getting myself a glass of water at bed time. As I walked to the kitchen I heard crunching noise coming from the kitchen island area where we keep the kitty bowls. I found a young possum macking on the cat's food. He looked at me, and ducked behind the island. I did an about face and got Alley up. As we approached the kitchen the possum ran from around the island across the dining room area and enter a little hallway where the kid's rooms and front bathroom is located. Fortunately the possum chose to enter the bathroom and not one of the sleeping kids room. Our kids love animals, but both are chickens and would have flipped out before we got the possum out. We shut all the other doors and I entered the kids bathroom and gently flushed the little possum out from behind the toilet. The little guy was kind of cute, and very scared. So scared he never even hissed and skittered out the side cat door.

Just now Alley told me the cats have something cornered just outside the side door and we walked our there to the sounds of our male cat Dingo hissing. From around my VW bug a young raccoon was pacing back and forth with his tail puffed out and his back highly arched. He took off down the left side of our drive way passing our cars, then came back toward us on the right side. Just before Alley and I broke and ran back in the house, the raccoon stopped, made a hard right squeezing through one of those vent screen openings I should have replaced last year.

What the hell? We live in one of the most suburban sections of L.A. with no open natural areas anywhere nearby. Last weekend around dusk we were returning from our boat docked the the San Pedro/Terminal Island area. Just before we entered the Vincent St. Thomas bridge highway we saw a coyote in an area that shocked me.

Nature is resilient, with a surprisingly high number of wild animals completely adapted to living in one of the worlds largest cities.
Cool, but I going to make sure our cat's rabies shots are up to date.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear denbot!

Yup, welcome to the Manhattan Beach branch of the Animal Planet!

We've had possums forever, and my husband saw a skunk right outside our front door! :scared:

We've never had anything get in this current house, though...

No pet doors...

Coyotes are very adaptable, and it seems they can live anywhere. I believe that they interbreed with dogs...

We need to talk about the telescope one of these days, BTW...

:hi:

[denbot]

2. Skunks too huh?

Can't wait to surprise one of those in my kitchen.. sigh..

[Kat45]

14. Doesn't everybody have skunks?

I live in a Boston suburb, and in the summer, I can smell one around most nights. A couple of weeks ago I was looking out the window of my sun-porch one night, and I did a double-take when I saw a skunk walking across my backyard, looking around by the fence, then turning and walking the other way to leave the yard. Not sure where he found an area of fence he could squeeze under. Because we have bird feeders, and there are a lot of outdoor cats in the neighborhood, we've tried to flock off any possible areas for cats to access the yard.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. Absolutely make sure that the kitties are up to date on rabies inoculations...

My friend found a bat in her house and her pets would have had to go into quarantine if they hadn't been up to date on rabies... :(

;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2dShCL4rSk

[denbot]

4. Classic video

I e-mailed a copy to Alley, and Mini-Alley. Thanks for the laugh.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. Glad you liked it...

No matter how many times I see it, it always makes me grin... :D It's just fortunate that you have good eyesight... ;) :hi:

[Jamastiene]

6. The animals are scavenging and stocking up for winter very heavily this year.

The way they are going about it (in many places, not just where I live) is almost like a mad dash to the store to buy bread and milk before it snows in an area where snow is rare.

Usually, when animals scavenge more than normal and risk interactions with humans to get to the food, it means conditions are pretty harsh or food is pretty scarce for some reason or another.

For us, fall doesn't usually start this early. We barely have a cold day before late October. The leaves hardly ever really start turning until then either. This year, though, we are having cool nights early and the leaves are already starting to change. The animals are more active, almost frantic, in finding food to hoard up for the cold months, and food to eat now.

I would say for my area, we are in for an early cold season. Maybe your area has something going on that is similar. I don't know that, but I do know lots of other areas have been mentioning some serious ant, rat, opossum, snake, and raccoon break-ins/rummaging/stealing food around the rest of the country.

It's almost like they are frantic to get at the food, like they think the world is going to end if they don't stock up heavily and stock up now. I know that sounds :tinfoilhat: but animals know these things. It might not be the end of the world, but harsh conditions may be coming that we aren't aware of yet.

[RandomThoughts]

7. Will there be beer?

[denbot]

8. Interesting thoery.

This is the coolest summer in my life time, so maybe the cooler weather has the critters on edge. I don't think the food supply gets too sparse in the winter around here. I'm guessing the local raccoons and possums feed on pet food for a good part of their diets.

[cbayer]

9. Get yourself on the boat, denbot!!

Tie up to a mooring or go on the hook. The only critters that will bother you will be some kelp flies and an occasional yellow jacket.

Greeting from Catalina! We just spent two wonderful weeks in Little Harbor but left today because the swell was coming over the reef. Now in Cat Harbor and it's beautiful.

When are you coming over??

:hi:

[denbot]

10. Soon, my friend, soon.

We need to put her on the hard to replace the gudgeon pins and bolts.. The former owner had some beautiful bronze ones made, but used stainless steel for the bolts and pins. Sigh.. We are hoping to be ready for the crossing by October.

Went surfing today, and loved the swell we are getting from the south.

[david13]

11. We have skunks and possums and squirrels here too. I was just

up at Mammoth Lakes. They have bears up there, and yes, they do come in the house.
dc

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Welome to Wild Kingdom.

I see possums and raccoons in my back yard in urban Minneapolis. Where I work, in one of the suburbs, I have seen an entire pack of coyotes outside my office window, plus wild turkeys and deer. I see often eagles flying over the Mississippi on my way to work. And a couple of weeks ago an employee coming to work early in the morning saw a cougar in the parking lot. A cougar. The DNR was called, sent out a helicopter, didn't find it, but the cat was seen again in the same place a few days later. And a bear was seen yesterday not far from my parents' old house in suburban St. Paul.

[Kali]

13. how about this:

Yesterday we are driving down the road in Tucson and are stopped in a left turn lane. I'm watching the car in front and suddenly, running across the hood of the truck is a HUGE spider! It dashed into the crevice where the windshield wipers go. I'm laughing and then it runs up the pillar on the passenger side and up onto the weather stripping at the top of the window (which was partly open. We think it came in and went back in the jump seat area but we were cracking up so much we didn't see where it went.

Poor thing it is a very dark blue truck and it was hot as hell - must have burnt all 8 feet!