A friend was startled awake the other night by the rustling of leaves and other noises in the backyard of her apartment building. She opened her window and was quite surprised to go eyeball to eyeball with a raccoon.
Where, she wonders, are these raccoons coming from? If you know, do tell.
This evening my son calmly noted two opposums in my back porch in Marine Park and apparently scared them more than he was scared. One ran away down the back steps, the other remained on a planter which had some bread crumbs for the birds. Interestingly, he had no apparent interest in the bread but only remained there for another 10 min. until he thought the coast was clear. We watched from the window. How long opposums have been native to Brooklyn I am not clear, I hear rumors that they were released in recent years in Marine Park to keep the rat pop. down. If so Kol Hakovod to them. We took a nice couple of pictures but I am not sure how to publish on your site.
OOHHHH,
I HAVE JUST HAD A RUN IN.
THE RACOON WAS IN MY BACKYARD.
I WENT OUT THERE WITH MY DOG. HE
WAS ACTING STRANGE,( NOT THE FIRST
TIME FOR THAT.) SO I THOUGHT MAYBE
HE HAD TO SPRINKLE A LITTLE,BECAUSE
I’VE JUST GOTTEN HOME FROM WORK.
THINKING MAYBE NOBODY LET HIM OUT AND
HE REALLY HAD TO GO. LOW AND BEHOLD
IT WAS OUT THERE. VERY BIG I MIGHT
ADD. IT DID NOT RUN…. I WAS AFRAID
FOR MY DOG LIFE. IT JUST STAYED
RIGHT THERE. MY DOG BEING THE FRIENDLY
PLAYFUL DOG TRIED TO PLAY WITH IT. I’M
STILL VERY SHAKING BY THE EVENTS. I HAD
TO GET MY BROOM TO GET MY DOG BACK INSIDE.
AND THEN IT RAN. AFTER MY DOG WENT INSIDE.
IS THIS NORMAL FOR A RACOON. I HEARD
PEOPLE HAD SEEN A COUPLE IN THE AREA
BUT NOT IN MY YARD. A NEIGHBOR CAME OUT
AND SAID HE SEEN IT IN MY SHED. SCARED
LIVING IN ELIZABETH N.J. OH. YEAH MY
HUSBAND WONT BE HOME FOR ANOTHER FEW HOURS
AND I WONT BE WALKING THIS DOG TONIGHT.
TRYING NEXT STEP CALLING ANIMAL CONTROL.
SCARED TO GO OUTSIDE. THANKS. I REALLY
FELL LIKE HE WOULD HAVE HURT MY DOG.
SCARED IN ELIZABETH.
OK SO, RECENTLY A FRIEND TOLD ME HE SAW SOME RACCOONS ON ANOTHER FRIENDS BLOCK, AND WE LIVE IN BROOKLYN AND SINCE LIVING HERE I HAVE NEVER SEEN ONE. NOW WHEN I LIVED IN LONG ISLAND I KNEW THEY WERE COMMON. BUT AFTER HE TOLD SOME OTHER FRIENDS EVERYONE JUST BEGAN TO START SEEING THEM ALL OVER, IN THEIR BACK YARDS, PORCHES, DECKS, PARKS ETC. I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO HAD NOT SEEN ONE. UNTIL THE OTHER NIGHT I CAME FACE TO FACE WITH ONE, IT WAS THE MOST SCARIEST THING EVER, I DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO. IT STARED AT ME WITH THESE INNOCENT EYES, AND I STARED WITH FEAR MY REACTION WAS TO RUN BUT I HAD ON HEELS, SO IT GOT SCARED OF AN ONCOMING CAR AND RAN AWAY. NOW IM TERRIFIED AND DONT WANNA SEE ANOTHER ONE. NOW THERE ALL OVER AND IM NERVOUS TO HAVE ANOTHER ENCOUNTER, IT SEEMS THERES AN INFESTATION IN BROOKLYN!!!
I live in Bay Ridge Brooklyn, my bed is next to the window with a fire escape. Two weeks ago on a Sunday night my yorkie was trying to get to the window, I thought he just wanted to look outside, so I pulled up the shade and I was face to face with a Racoon, so cute yet so scary, luckily the window was closed. My boyfriend and I were in shock, it was so bizzarre. Well this Sunday night I went to open the window, after lifting up the shade once again our furry uninvited guest was on the fire escape. Well i’m rearranging my room this week but that is the only window I can open in my bedroom to let fresh air in and now i’m terrified to open it, i’m sure the racoon can easily scratch or bite his way through the screen. Any suggestions?
I live in Brooklyn, not too far away from Dyker Park. I see raccoons all the time on 7Th Ave, near Victory Memorial Hospital and Poly Prep. I also had an encounter with one in my backyard. Nasty little sucker. They are nocturnal so you will only see them at night. I also hit one with my car{unintentionally} on Cropsey Ave near 15th. Ave. about 2 weeks ago.
Raccoons also carry rabies. So far, no human has gotten sick, but an outbreak in Staten Island last year killed several cats. Do not go near raccoons, and do not allow any pets to go near them.
Ugh! I live in Los Angeles and always thought the racoons were cute until mysteriously we began to get fleas every summer. We battled the fleas for 3 months every summer for 11 years. Not knowing that the problem is that the “dute” racoons were living in our attic and breeding there every year! dropping fleas non stop as they scamper, mate fight and have babies in an area to small for an 8 year old kid to crawl into. Our house is craftsman 2 story and impossible to find every little possible entrance into the attic in fact some nights we have heard them in the wall!!! They just came around the last 3 nights again.
We’ve tried pepper sprinkles, coyote urine products and plain yelling and lights even kind to critter traps that they ignore, they must laugh at us!!
They’re good eatin’
Maybe a Raccoon did it? PLEASE READ!!!
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Our little dog that we have had for 7 years always stays at our house in the day and has never ran away. One day she was outside and when we went to go get her because it was about to storm, she was gone. No where to be found. This of course hurt us very much because shes like a family member….we were hart broken. No one had seen her and we put flyer’s up and contacted the local vet and pound. After about 2 weeks we all kept wondering what the hell actually happened. Coyotes and bob cats don’t come out in the day and she has never just wandered aimlessly in the woods and she had her collar on too! Then lately, we have noticed raccoons coming into the garage in the afternoon and eating out cat food. This has never happened in the day time…ever, so it was a shock. When it happened a second time my dad suggested raccoons might have seen that the little dog was in distress (she is very afraid of storms) and they attacked her, going for her throat, and dragged her off into the woods and ate her. I didn’t want to believe this but dad said it was possible. But do raccoons have that kind of behavior? I mean would they actually attack a small dog than eat it? I didn’t think dad knew for sure because he’s not an EXPERT on raccoons…so i came to the internet hoping somebody that knew a lot about raccoons would have this kind of behavior. So I ask if somebody could help me figure out what might have happened to my little dog “kisses” …i love her so much and i am just so curious of what may have happened. Whoever has read this i thank you so much and if someone has something to say about this than PLEASE do =)
It’s about noon and I’m sitting in my parent’s house looking out the window at three racoons! Two are on the garage roof and one is on the fence. Their place is 4 long blocks from Marine Park. I have never seen racoons out in the day time! Now my boyfriend lives in PS, less than 1 block from Prospect Park, and I’ve never seen any there.
In February my friend, who lives in PS near the cemetery, left the fire escape window opened a crack. She awoke to crashing noises in the kitchen. When she crept out of bed to investigate she saw two racoons sitting on the counter washing dry cat food in a pan of water she left in the sink. They all were afraid of each other. My friend ran to her bedroom and the racoons skittered out the window.
A neighbor of mine in PH saw a raccoon in the hallway of her building in March! It was on the 6th (top) floor, and she saw it when the elevator opened, just walking around in the hall way. It must have found it way in from the courtyard where the trash is kept.
Just a note: if you find one, call 311 and they will dispatch Animal Care & Control (M-F) to humanely capture it and release it in the wild. They have a whole network of animal rescue groups that take everything from rabbits to chickens (they pick up about 1-3 a week in the city), to wild animals and of course, cats and dogs.
We had also raccoons and opossums in the 1950s and 1960s in Old Mill Basin, near present-day Kings Plaza. Also wild rabbits.
Some years back (maybe five or ten) there was a racoon infestation of 11th Street. This seems to happen when something drives the critters out of Prospect Park.
Had them in my backyard last summer. I’m three or four long avenue blocks from the southern edge of Prospect Park. We also have a lot of open space and trees, so I suspect these were locals.
We also have opossums. (Opossa? Oppossi?)
There have always been racoons in Brooklyn. In Park Sope and surrounding areas they come from Prospect Park. My parents lived in Marine Park and had racoons in their trash cans constantly.