Know Your Target and What's Beyond

[goose]

Having been on a couple of dozen 'coon hunts with my brother-in-law, I will gladly give them a wide berth. I have seen a single raccoon hold off four dogs on many an occasion. They are darn sure better at hand-to-hand combat than I am.

[RossA]

We like watching them come eat the cat food on our back patio at night. usually the cats just watch them, but occasionally one of them gets too close and the cats let them know whose house it is.

[The Annoyed Man]

I still laugh at this.

You beat me to it! The first time I heard this story was back around 1973 or 74, and I laughed so hard I cried and nearly wet myself. Clower was a great story teller. I always loved that punch line: "Well just shoot up here amongst us. ONE of us has got to have some relief!"

[The Annoyed Man]

Having been on a couple of dozen 'coon hunts with my brother-in-law, I will gladly give them a wide berth. I have seen a single raccoon hold off four dogs on many an occasion. They are darn sure better at hand-to-hand combat than I am.

Years ago, before I met and married my wife, I had a girlfriend for several years, and I was at her house one evening watching TV with her in her room, when we saw her dad go by the door of her room in a hurry with his 9mm in his hand. What the what!? So I went to see if he needed help. When I caught up to him, he had stood down. Turns out that he had walked past his own bedroom and stuck his head in the door to check on his wife, who had already gone to bed. What he saw was a face just outside the bedroom window, staring in at his wife, with its hands on the window sill, either side of its face. That's when he ran and got his gun. When he got back to the bedroom, the face was gone; so he grabbed a flashlight and shined it out into the back yard. On the other side of the yard was a couple of raccoons, one of which was so large that at first he thought it was a small bear. Turns out, that raccoon was big enough to stand up on its hind legs and look over the window sill into the bedroom, and that was the face that he saw.

Later, I told a woman whom I worked with at the ER about this story. She actually had two pet raccoons, one of which she was about to turn over to a zoo because it was getting way to cranky to keep as a pet any longer. Anyway, she told me that raccoons never stop growing until the day they die, and if a raccoon lives long enough, they can get to be huge. They just don't usually live long enough to get that big. I've no idea if that is true or not, but nobody has ever told me differently.

[RogueUSMC]

I worked nights at a Whataburger when I was in high school...

One night, I was taking the trash out to the dumpster. As I chunked the bag over in there, I heard a commotion. I turned back just in time to see a coon come up out of there and perch on the edge of the dumpster...about an arm's length away. For about a half second, I though about reaching out and grabbing it...lol

[Jusme]

I worked nights at a Whataburger when I was in high school...

One night, I was taking the trash out to the dumpster. As I chunked the bag over in there, I heard a commotion. I turned back just in time to see a coon come up out of there and perch on the edge of the dumpster...about an arm's length away. For about a half second, I though about reaching out and grabbing it...lol

It would have taken less time than that to regret the decision.

Glad you made the right choice.

[wil]

We like watching them come eat the cat food on our back patio at night. usually the cats just watch them, but occasionally one of them gets too close and the cats let them know whose house it is.

Yep, detente amongst my cats and the 'locals' until the 'locals' push things too far, then the cats remind them it's their turf, not the locals turf.
Cat vrs coon is one bodacious fight. I heard the first round and went outside to find out who it was of mine, at that point the coon evidently was getting the worst of it and tried for the top of the fence. Evidently one of mine decided he wasn't done yet and caught the coon going up the fence, back into the yard they went and round two....

[RossA]

I'm always amazed that a cat can do some pretty bad things to a coon several times the cat's size.

[JRG]

Great Jerry Clower story. Thanks for sharing!!

Joe

[OldCurlyWolf]

Having been on a couple of dozen 'coon hunts with my brother-in-law, I will gladly give them a wide berth. I have seen a single raccoon hold off four dogs on many an occasion. They are darn sure better at hand-to-hand combat than I am.

My Grandpa had a mixed breed bird dog that jumped a pair of coons, Boar and Sow, by himself. Grandpa said Sandy already had the boar dead before he could get the shotgun out of his pickup. Grandpa shot the sow to stop the fight. All Sandy got was ONE fang mark in his right hindquarter. He might have gotten more if Grandpa hadn't shot the sow. Sows are usually quicker than the boars.