Ok, wait. Now, just... Wait. This isn't a fair test because it didn't happen in the woods. It happened online. I go outside and I see a big Pecan tree. It's night time, and there aren't any raccoons in it. Tree wights, maybe; Raccoons, no.

And if the tree is indeed Yggdrasil, does Odin get mad at the raccoon? It IS Yule time, you know. The Wild Hunt and all.

9:00 am out for a walk, spot raccoon in its shit and play tree decide coon has rabies or encelphalitus. Raise ruger shoot coon, coon falls to ground. Skin said coon, also nic hand in process. Drive to town sale coon hide for 11.00 dollors, feeling good with self, stop at coffee shop buy a round. About one week later see in local newspaper fur buyer in hospital unknown cause maybe rabies!!!!??? Two days later in hospital getting antirabies shot $110 dollors a pop!!!! four more to go prognosis good. Foam Foam Foam!!! Moral-Shoot coon leave in woods.

raccoon babies are called rabies for short. So the reason you saw that mother raccoon outside in the daytime was because it had rabies.

Dunno, I'd rather not take chances- I had something REALLY similar to this happen to me back in the spring a week or two after having to kill one that was DEFINATELY rabid. He blew bubbles at me and everything.

The dogs ran him up a tree in the "pasture", and I grabbed the Desert Eagle and trudged in to give him a looksee. I'd gotten fairly deep in the scrub when I heard this female voice calling my name. It seems that my former girlfriend, who I hadn't seen in like 10 - 11 years, picked THAT moment to drop in and say hi. Talk about not catching someone at their best! When I finally got back to the yard, here I come, crashing out of the brush, w/ a bigass gun in my hand, and burrs in my beard!

The coon got lucky, because I was reasoning that all the coons around here hang out and interact, and if one was rabid, another one found at midday might be too.

-Sarge

Thanks folk's! Over 50 replies. Not trying to be a smart ass or know it all. Lot's of teachers in my family. Guess it's something i need to work on.

The reason the coon or however i spelled it was because he was either chased up that tree or went up that tree out of fear of being attacked by something unknown.
Yes coons are considered nocturnal but yes they are out in the daytime very often also. I wasn't considering this to look or be a test; although i guess it turned out that way. I was just trying to illustrate how if you are not knowledgeable in the woods then what you see or just read about might and most likely be interpeted by you as something that is totally wrong. Thus if you can't understand the facts then how can you make any logical decision or comment of any value even if you are pro or con on the subject. Like they say "Knowledge is power".

WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM.

Depends. In cold weather raccoons will also lay out on a limb in "sunny weather" to sun themselves for the warmth.

I tried to cover that aspect when i gave the tree diameter. Me no good teacher!

Well, I've seen small coons sun themselves in trees of about that diameter when it was the best way to get in the sun.

You also must consider that if the coon was up a tree to escape a threat, the threat may have been you (from the coon's perpspective of course).

[edited for clarification]

This is a funny thread..

Why is it funny? Ok.. I'll tell ya.

I have a large white possom that comes to my back yard several times a month.. always at night, except for one morning in broad daylight that I saw him out there about 2 months ago. He always does the same thing.

He's very slow and will get in the tree in my back yard, or walk on my wood fence. I have 4 dogs, two of which are large. The dogs alert me to his presence each time.
He will stare at the dogs, just out of their reach.. They go wild. The dogs finally calm down but watch him intently.. possom takes one little step.. dogs go wild.. possom goes still and stares at dogs.. they calm down again and sit and stare at each other. This usually goes on for about 45 minutes to an hour until I guess the possom gets bored with his game and finally leaves.
He's been more active lately, as I've seen him do this 3 times within the past week.
The other night he went so far as to climb on the dog run (which is covered.. we use it for storage.. not dogs). The dog run sits right next to the fence. My dogs were jumping madly at him getting as close as 2 feet from him.. He just stares down at them.

What does he want? Why is he doing this? Is he republican? I should try to get a picture of him. I shined a flashlight on him from our deck the other night when he was on the dog run and his eyes reflected back at me. My husband was on the deck with our two-year old watching
.. my two-year old pipes up and squeals "beegfoot!".. my husband glares at me.. I bust out laughing and just grin back at him sheepishly. (he said I'm ruining her ..but he laughed too) (She calls every animal "beegfoot" if she doesn't know what it is.)

Anyway.. I don't know too much about possom behavour, but isn't this abnormal?

I don't have food laying out anywhere, and the neighbors have an apple tree, but it's barren of anything right now.

So by "something unknown" you obviously are referring to a sasquatch, or an alien, or a chup, maybe even a hissin critter. Either way it's something spectacular.

I can't believe how fortunate we are to have you lecture us on what it now seems is the obvious.

Wow I've been missing all the simple indications of a population of sasquatches in my area.

Maybe a flock of ducks taking flight is being chased into the air by "something unknown"?

A deer or group of deer running across a field. A pursuit by "something unknown'?

Things are looking up. It's just become much easier for me to find sign of sasquatch activity in my area.

I was unaware that my area was similar to the Kiamichi's insofar as having a sasquatch behind every tree, and in every shadow.

I'm truly blessed.

Thank you for casting pearls to us swine.

RF

I'm still waiting on flowers and a Kiss.

I'm glad that Versatile didn't appear to get upset with the funning. I didn't mean to belittle anyone. I'm just a smart ass.

His point that the raccoon may have gone up the tree as a defense measure reminds me of a similar thing that happened on a hunting trip (oh, no! Hunster is going to start telling tales!).

I had my brother and his friend (both live in California) on a moose hunt in a favorite area near my home. I had no intention of shooting a moose, hoping they'd do it for me. After taking them to "the spot" about a mile from camp a few times, one morning I wanted to just hang around camp for the day. That morning we all got up, made breakfast, and they took off.

A little later, while sitting in camp, I heard something in the tree right above our kitchen area. There sat a porcupine looking down at me. H must have climbed up into the tree during the evening for his nap. Several times that morning he started to descent, but I walked over to the base of the tree, and he climbed back up. I kept him up in the tree the whole day until my partners got back. I had hoped to talk my brother into trying to skin it for dinner, but his suggestion was that he shot it and I skinned it. Not arriving at a negotiated settlement, we let the thing climb down and waddle away. He looked a bit pissed off at us.

No, no, no, Relic Fauna i never once implied that it was a Bf or Sas. You are startinfg to believe the stuff you have been a knocking. I would have been thinking it was A smaller predator such as a coyote etc. Poor fella you keep a jumpin the fence both ways. Workin around all them trains is a givin you tunnel vision.

Thanks for the clarifcation Versatile.

I figured as much. But you left the door wide open.

Back to the mundane I suppose.

And no doubt about it, railroading kills brain cells.


RF

I"m living proof of that.

Racoons often climb trees during the daylight hours here simply to rest in relative safety. No need to be chased up one. Indeed, you can often walk thrugh a woodlot and find them snoring away happily. If you walk up to the tree they often will awake and look down at you curiously.
Unless it was the sandman, nothing chased em' up there.
Something COULD have, of course..but simply their being there is no proof of that.

Dear Gawd! You're turning the child into a "Romantic".


This kind of thing must not be allowed to continue!

maybe it wasn't a racoon but one 'em Eastern Green Belly Man Eating Huge Feet Gray Squirrels.....

Yup! I have seen any number of Raccoons (Except for the number 76) in the daylight hours!
One spent a week in a tree out back. He would climb up there every afternoon and sleep until dusk.
Another chased our cat into the house shortly before noon! Why? Well now...that is a question I would love an answer too. Mind you she did have cubs living down a nearby creek!
I have also seen Momma and kiddies during the day time. Once at a cabin..and once at home!
So there might be more reasons for being up a tree them one might expect!
Maybe she was having a sanity break from the little darlings?

We can't have that!!!

They need a children's Bigfoot book..

I think she said that because I was looking at someone's picture (I think it was one that NightWing had done) where it's eyes turn red. She said "monkey?" and I said, "no, that's a bigfoot."

The possom's eyes glowed when I shined the flashlight on him.. so...
Poor kid.. guess we are going to have to sit down and have a talk.

Hmmmmm....You might be on to something! How are your literary writing skills?

You could save generations from becoming Romantics, Twits, and Trolls.

hmm.. that's a good idea.. I can write.. draw and paint too...

May have to think about that

T'would be a grand service to Mankind and Squatchdom!

many years ago I worked at a freezer warehouse for frozen foods, we would receive frozen cookie dough from Canada and one of my jobs was to take the temp of the load for QC reasons. Anyhoo I opened the trailer doors and stepped inside expecting to find happy frozen cookies and instead one very pissed off Canadian raccoon. How did he get there? I have no idea...

Better hurry, Lady.

The seed has just been planted in several inquiring minds.

Anybody know of any children's sasquatch books out there now?

I checked out one from our local library for my little ones sometime ago. I think it was called Bigfoot Cinderella. Can't remember who the author was.

Me too. And I thought we actually meant something to each other........

I don't care why he's up there or how he got up there...just as long as he doen't $h*t on my head.


Belle

Sorry! I already gave him your name.

Versatile,

This thread was started to encourage the writing of a children's book with a sasquatch as a character. Right?

Very clever how you seeded our thought processes, and manipulated our reasoning with your cunning coon in tree rouse.


RF

Ooooohhhh, now it's VERY clear!
The raccoon was in the tree because something scared it up there,
or it was rabid,
or possibly had head trauma,
unless of course it was simply sunning,
but then again...maybe it was an escaped pet...
o.k.
I see now!!
Where's my merit badge?!

Some people might have a better attitude if they got laid.

So now the 'coon's lonely too?!
Man! Poor little bugger!

Hey! I gots three kids!!

I got six kids!

I got none.

People who get laid tend to have a better sense of humor.

No...no...wait...I don't get it...

Ummm...

Ok if the raccoon is up in the tree because of a possible predator...
So I should not be writing any report, but rather trying to avoid whatever predator that scared the critter....

But if a report is needed, why should I write a report on a raccoon or its predator if I am in the field looking for Sas? Then again is there a specific "protocol" for writting a raccon report (or any other animal such as turkey, bear, or hog sighting report)?

How about a Bob H. report? no!! forget about that last one cause it would be a waist of time, ink, and paper......

So if we are looking for a raccoon or Sas, do we need to bring a paper and pen/pencil. Wouldn't be better just to bring a video camera and let an expert write a report on the video afterwards...... and later call you a hoaxer (like Korff/Long and company, except that they are not experts of anything....)?


PS. Sorry for the bad joke and comments, no offense intended, I just finished a long day and got in the forum and the first thread I read was this one and I got carried away a little bit, I enjoyed it a lot though ...... (you have to agree that unfortunately maybe you should have given a better explanation of the purpose of the posting before setting the raccoon scene, and the topic is more related to "IN THE FIELD" category than the "General Disscussion" area).

I do like the idea and purpose of your thread and appreciate that you want to help new BF enthusiasts by sharing your knowledge, so thanks for that!!

Edited twice for spelling errors

I agree.

With that in mind, I've got to say that I like the new Desertyeti avatar.

If some people got laid they might not make so many presumptuous threads!

IMHO, thats the best answear I've seen.....................By the way DY,LOOOOOOOOOOVE the new avatar!

O.K. about the laying part of this insane thread, how recent do you have to be laid to be considered having a sense of humor? We talking hours, days, weeks or months? This is crucial!

OMG you guys are hilarious. I wish I were that witty.

Anybody what to buy some kids??!!! Foam! Foam! Foam!

Hank the word is want not what.
Sorry thi damm thinq want wrok twonite.!! must be the shots!! Foam! Foam! Foam!