We've paved Paradise, put up a parking lot (Take 2,583)
(This is a recurring theme with me. Ignore if you've been this route before.)
Went out the back door just now to bring out garbage/recycling, and there was a HUGE FAT raccoon sniffing around for the cat kibble I leave out for a cat that keeps coming around late at night. (Can't tell if the cat is feral or owned: no collar and it runs when it sees me, which doesn't prove anything.) S/he looks up at me expectantly, not at all afraid of me. I hated to do it but I scared it off by stamping my feet and making barking noises at it. Me? I'd love to have him hang out there, unafraid of me. But not being afraid of people is really bad for *them,* so I consider I'm doing them a favor, much as I loathe to. Rather than learn to live with them, my neighbors would rather exterminate them. Nevermind that this was their land before we took it over.
In other news, the plan for cutting down on feeding the skunks and raccoons in the yard continues. Not every day, less and less, so that by spring they will come to the restaurant to find it NOT open for business. The vet at New England Wildlife assures me that I haven't retrained their instincts out of them, and they'll move on to where the food is.
My big question for me, that no one so far can answer, is: exactly WHAT food is there, and WHERE? We've paved Paradise, pesticided all the lots. I live in the town between Lexington and Cambridge, not sure it can even call itself "suburbia" really. So they'll garbage- and restaurant dumpster-dive instead? I don't see that as an improvement to getting healthy scraps and kitty kibble in my fenced in yard. (sigh) But I do understand and even agree with the advice that wild things should stay wild. (Unless they can't, and then we have angels like Vinnie and Kindra Mammone and their family.)
Went out the back door just now to bring out garbage/recycling, and there was a HUGE FAT raccoon sniffing around for the cat kibble I leave out for a cat that keeps coming around late at night. (Can't tell if the cat is feral or owned: no collar and it runs when it sees me, which doesn't prove anything.) S/he looks up at me expectantly, not at all afraid of me. I hated to do it but I scared it off by stamping my feet and making barking noises at it. Me? I'd love to have him hang out there, unafraid of me. But not being afraid of people is really bad for *them,* so I consider I'm doing them a favor, much as I loathe to. Rather than learn to live with them, my neighbors would rather exterminate them. Nevermind that this was their land before we took it over.
In other news, the plan for cutting down on feeding the skunks and raccoons in the yard continues. Not every day, less and less, so that by spring they will come to the restaurant to find it NOT open for business. The vet at New England Wildlife assures me that I haven't retrained their instincts out of them, and they'll move on to where the food is.
My big question for me, that no one so far can answer, is: exactly WHAT food is there, and WHERE? We've paved Paradise, pesticided all the lots. I live in the town between Lexington and Cambridge, not sure it can even call itself "suburbia" really. So they'll garbage- and restaurant dumpster-dive instead? I don't see that as an improvement to getting healthy scraps and kitty kibble in my fenced in yard. (sigh) But I do understand and even agree with the advice that wild things should stay wild. (Unless they can't, and then we have angels like Vinnie and Kindra Mammone and their family.)