Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Horrible Monday evening

I gave my poor mum a BIG scare last night.......

It all started at around 8:30 in the evening. Mum was on the computer reading all my cyber-buddies' blogs when all of a sudden, she heard BANG BANG BOOOOOOM coming from the yard. She ran down the stairs and into the yard where she saw a mama raccoon "in" the yard sniffing the grass, and three babies sitting on top of the fence, and THIS..........

Picture taken this morning


I was no where to be found in the yard, so mum called me. Thank doG I love my mum too much to ever take off on her, so I was already waiting for her around the house in front of the yard gate. Mum opened the gate and gasped at the sight of me. I was covered in blood from my muzzle down to my chest. Even though I didn't appear to be in pain and was still ready to protect mum from those nasty raccoons, mum was freaking out. I guess mum knew how "stoic" I am about pain along with all the adrenalin pumping in my body that she thought for sure I was badly hurt.

Mum was practically shaking when she put me in the car and zoomed me to Auntie Janice's (my vet) house. While she was driving, mum kept thinking that the splinter from the fence panels must have punctured my chest, or that I was bitten by the mama raccoon and that very thought sent tears down her face. Mum remembered what Mackie, Butchy & Snicker's mums had warned about getting "Coonhound paralysis" from raccoon bites.

I was still very happy and excited when I saw my Auntie Janice, who on the other hand, looked calm, but very serious (and this is very un-usual for Auntie Janice). Auntie Janice checked my vital signs and my chest first as she was most concerned about that area. Much to their surprise and relief, I had no wound around my chest at all, only the hair on my chest was bloody. My vital signs were also strong and stable, and I was definitely not in shock. So Auntie Janice moved her attention to my mouth area (where I kept trying to give her bloody nibbles/kisses...), and found the source of the gushing blood.

I had split one of my bottom incisors (second tooth from my bottom right canine) and that's where all the blood on my chest was coming from. In a way it was a good split (vertically splitted) because the first half of the tooth came off easily, and the second half of the tooth contained the nerve ending, which was not exposed and was still stable. Auntie Janice said since it wasn't a canine or a molar that she wasn't too concerned. So she gave mum some pain meds to take home in case I was in pain. Good news is that the split tooth had no effect on me at all and I didn't need to take any yucky pills!! I ate a good breakfast this morning and have no problem drinking.

Those pesky raccoons however, are another problem. Mum called wild life/pest control this morning, and the response she got was "you can't stop wild life from being outside."!! Apparently, unless the raccoons are causing damages to the property, there is nothing you can do about it. Mum and I believe that they either live in the shed or on the oak tree behind our fence, which is NOT on our property. Ever since my last encounter with the raccoons, mom has been adamant at not leaving any left over bones in the yard, but they still came....... I guess I'll just have to stay inside after dark from now on until mum can figure out a way to make the raccoons leave...SIGH.... Got any ideas??

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

sunshade, that's terrible!!!

first, give your mom lots of nibble kissy!

even though the raccoons were outside NOW but they were once on top of the yard fence. can't you show the picture to the wildlife/pest control and tell them that one of these days, they will sneak in eventually?

just found something on the internet: http://www.critter-repellent.com/raccoons/raccoons-on-my-roof.php

wanna give it a try?

licky wet-wet licks,

boo

Sunshade said...

Dear Boo Boo (I don't know why I like to say your name twice...),

Thank you and your mom for the link, mom says she'll try anything at this point. I however, feel that I'm more scary than those coyotes, and I certainly pee in my yard, but they don't seem to be afraid of me AT ALL........

Mom says the problem with wild life control was that first, the raccoons were not on our property, and second, they weren't really causing damage to the property (I caused more damage to both the property and myself LOL). Sigh...it is such a pain.

We will try the coyote powder thought!!

MUAH!

Love nibbles,
Miss Sunshade

Fu Fu said...

Oh Sunshade, you are so brave to protect your mom from the raccoon.
Hope you are ok now.

I'm linking you to my site too. :)

~ fufu

T-man Angel said...

How scary for you and your mom!! I'm glad you stuck close to home and are all right. We don't live that close to raccoons here, so I don't have any poodle advice. Just stick close to your mom and she'll make sure you're ok.

Buster the Wired Fox Terror said...

I have raccoons in my yard, too. They knock over our garbage pails so now the garbage is in our garage where they can't get it.

We had a gang of 3 or 4 - it is scary at night cuz you just see shadows running!

One day daddy found a big dead raccoon out back. He wouldn't show us, but he said he was ripped up pretty bad - must've been my friend Albert got him!

Bussie Kissies
Buster

Unknown said...

Hi Sunshade,
We haven't been able to see your post updates for over a week! We finally can see them. Wow, those nasty raccoons! We have the solution for you, send our Mama over to your house. She will shoot them dead on the spot! We see someone was talking about coyote powder, I think you can get liquid coyote or fox urine also in a bottle. Mama says you could pour that right onto the fence boards, especially where the coon like to climb. What happens with your half tooth now?? Does your vet have to remove it? or do you just leave it there? Do they have dog fillings like humans? hehehe! We don't know how large your fence is, but you could attach barbed wire across in rows on the back side. If you do this thick enough, it would help discourage those pesky raccoons. Mama is all ready to start hunting them down here. They have been pooping up a storm all around the house and she doesn't want our wittle tootsies to even tough that icky stuff. Stay safe girl!!!
Wirey Hugs!
Butchy & Snickers

Jay said...

Oh dear.... racoons... you are so BRAVE!!!

Sunshade said...

Thank you FuFu and Jay! Yeah I'm pretty brave, but mom says I'm too "abusive" to my body...wutever that means!!

Oh my Buster, maybe you should send your friend Albert over here, or maybe the dead raccoon so that these resident raccoons will see what will happen if they came over!!

Dear T-man.....you have to be very careful ok?? Those scary raccoons are usually bigger than you.... I hope you will never meet one!!

Hey Butchy & Snickers, you don't mind me borrowing your mom do you?? We will give the fox/coyote urine a try (but i'm sure i'll just keep peeing over them LOL), and maybe put up barbed wires too!!

Thanks everybody!!

Love nibbles,
Miss Sunshade