Sad happening in the pond

[Big Lou]

Went outside and refilled the bird feeder this morning. Once filled I looked over at the pond and saw a hairy animal partially submerged. Immediately called Animal Control to help retrieve the poor creature. The animal was a full grown raccoon. Once out of the pond the Animal Control Officer carefully examined the corpse. Only sign of trama was blood tingling form its mouth. We both supposed the large raccoon fell from a close by cypress tree then hit its head on a stone. The raccoon's head was directly beside the three foot tall in pond stone. Happened last night since it wasn't there yesterday afternoon.

So sad such a fine animal is gone.

(Have photos but am hesitant to post)

 

[j.w]

Awwwwwwwwwww, the poor thing
Just a freaky accident and hope you feel better about what happened soon Lou

 

[Tula]

Hmmmmmm, kind of unusual for a raccoon to fall, as they're normally so nimble. I wonder about it's health, prior to ending up in your pond. I'm sure this was a bit of a shock for you.

 

[addy1]

Darn I hate seeing dead animals. It might have been sick lou

 

[haver79]

Sad thing to happen Lou.
We have some old hollow maples and usually have a litter of raccoons in one of them. We happen to be outside standing nearby when we heard a loud thump. Sure enough one of the babies fell off of a limb. He stayed there for 5 or 6 minutes, a little stunned, then wondered back over to the tree and climbed back up. We wondered if he would have any trouble getting back up there as he was pretty small. But he did it with no problems. A little unusual for an adult to fall.

 

[Dave 54]

Sounds like this one was old and not as nimble as its fellow raccoon as such its missed its grip and fallen .
Just bad luck it hi the wall Lou , dont go blaming yourself acciddents happen and it appears its was this Raccoons time

Dave

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Hey it happens. At least he landed in your pond and not on you.
I have a lot of squirrels around my place and they often run across the metal roof on my garage to get to walnuts from the tree in my neighbor's yard. Well one morning I was walking out to the garage when I heard a squirrels jump onto the roof of the garage and start running across it, but it was one of the first frosts of the year and the metal roof was very frosty, I heard his little feet scratching 100 mph on the slippery metal roof and knew he was having problems getting traction, I looked up just it time to see him falling off the roof straight down on top of me. I just managed to get my head out of the way but he landed on my shoulder. I'm not sure who was more freaked out, him or me.

 

[addy1]

lol what a crack up mucky! I watched one squirrel lose its grip on our bird feeders, it fell around 20 feet and just took off running to the woods, they do know how to fall.

 

[jmajid]

Sorry about the raccoon... shame.
We have various cats who wander through our pond area - some take a drink but never have messed with the fish to my knowledge.
As for squirrels - we have a few - two certainly seem to be a regulars and i have seen one of them with white ear tips looking for scraps of palm tree bark as it then bunches it up and crawls up one of the tall palms - seen it do it a few time - once it gathered some from the ground and another time i saw it actively take off the older bark from the palm and then scurry up the tree.
Squirrels sure are fun to watch - until the time they start hurling old palm leaves down on my pond and my fish! - which has also happened - lets just i was UNHAPPY that day
But its always nice to have other wildlife around our ponds...not just our fish.

 

[Catfishnut]

Big Lou,

I am guessing that the raccoon had distemper. I have seen many of them suffer from this and it isn't a pretty sight. We try to put them out of their misery if we find one with it. Racoons are denning animals, so they can quickly transfer this disease among the population.

They act very lethargic (like a sloth) wheeze very badly when breathing, stagger around in circles and fall over sideways repeatedly. On the ground they eventually just fall over and die a slow death, either from the disease itself, starvation or exposure. If they happen to make it up a tree and have this disease, they generally just "plop" out of their comfort spot on a limb to the ground.

This generally happens here when the population has gotten out of control and the winter gets very cold. They den up together to stay warm and then start transferring the distemper among themselves.

I have witnessed dozens of racoons with this form of distemper. Not sure if it is related to true rabies, but I wouldn't take any chances.

Gordy

 

[Big Lou]

Should I be concerned about the pond water because of the deceased raccoon?

 

[HARO]

Since you have no fish, I wouldn't worry about it. If you HAD fish, I still wouldn't worry!
John

 

[HARO]

Not to belittle your sad story, Lou, but an incident that happened in our factory some years ago may lift your mood a bit. The office area was on the second floor, and above this was an open space about six feet high, which housed ductwork, wiring, and a healthy raccoon population. One day there was a big meeting in the boardroom with a number of higher-ups from G.M. At one point there was a scratching noise from the ceiling tiles, and suddenly a tile gave way and a VERY large raccoon came crashing dowm in the middle of the huge conference table! As executives jumped back, knocking over chairs, the coon looked around nervously, vacated its bowels, and fainted dead away! A couple of the braver execs grabbed brooms from a small closet and pushed the seemingly dead animal INTO said closet. A janitor was called to clean up the mess, and after a half-hour or so the meeting resumed!
I was the company painter at the time, on the second shift, so they asked ME to get rid of what they thought was the cadaver, but by that time the raccoon had climbed up a shelf unit, chewed a hole in the ceiling, and re-joined his relatives. And they all lived happily ever after!
John

 

[Big Lou]

Your story put a big smile on my face! Thanks

 

[j.w]

What great fun the critters provide us with..............guess that's why we love them so much. I enjoyed reading all the stories here about the varmints