The little imp! He does look a bit skinny.

I know they are one of nature's wonders but I'm not a fan of them. Last year one of them got into the screened porch at my sister's through the doggy door and attacked her elderly, blind and deaf chihuahua. Chewed up it's face and was on it's way to kill it when the neighbor came to see what all the racket was about and shot it. My sister was at he hospital with her dying husband at the time, like she really needed this. Well, it turned out to be rabid and they had to quarantine the dog on top of all the vet treatment of the wounds even though it was up on all it's shots. Then early this year one got into our chicken coop and killed poor Chick-chick. Dragged it out of the coop to about 20 feet away and ripped it into little pieces. Not a fan.

miserable cuteness is how I define them.

They massacred the fish in our pond. Haven’t seen any lately since the invasion of coyotes. I thought the first pic was a garden statue. Pretty view.

I live in a condo and we are not allowed to have bird feeders as it attracts the raccoons who end up in the attics to get warm during the winter and cause damage.

This is a friend's pic of her visitor.

We have some around but not many. Once one got into our garage and was making a mess of things. I called Animal Control and asked if they could come. "No" was the answer but they suggested turning on loud, obnoxious music and that would shoo them away. For me, there's a lot of obnoxious music but I settled on Barry Manilow and Motown songs (I do have a large collection) and put a player turned to maximum volume by the garage door opening. It worked.

I don't like raccoons. Or Barry Manilow or Motown music.

Great photos here. They are cute, smart, bold and destructive.

I dislike them too, real mess makers.

Sue

Urban raccoons are a fact of life. They thrive in cities due to so many available hiding places and food sources - dumpsters and garbage cans, veggie gardens, bird feeders, pet food left outdoors, etc. And they are very adept at keeping out of sight :-)

Cute but destructive!

When we were still in our former home, I woke up one night to two on the skylight over our bed, staring down at me and chirping. DH got up to try to get them off the roof, I went out too and before I knew it was apologizing to the neighbor for waking up his dog who woke up him at such a wee hour.

They returned several nights. It was raining, and they made a muddy smeary mess of the bedroom and master bath skylights (4' long). DH was plenty tired of cleaning up after them, of getting a ladder and going onto the roof.

I still don't know what was attractive about my roof. I hadn't then (or now) fed birds other than hummingbirds in many years. No pets fed outdoors and a secure garbage can.

I see them cross the yard every once in a while here, but they don't seem to stay.

gardengal, where we are currently staying, the neighborhood is full of them. I think they are attracted not only to what they find in people's yards, but also to the nearby bay and mud flats. When the tide goes out at night, all sorts of food sources such as mollusks, crabs and small fish are exposed. There is also a large house nearby that is surrounded by several acres that makes the perfect hunting ground for these critters.

Anyway, one night I was standing outside on the deck and noticed dozens of raccoons walking down the sidewalk as if part of a parade. One by one they passed by in single file as they headed down to the water and the grounds of the house to start their night time foraging. It was quite a sight to behold as you'd never know there were any raccoons around when walking around the neighborhood during the daylight hours.

We have had them for over 33 years here and just put up with them. They can be a pest and very destructive, but we just let the coyotes, bobcats and mt. lions take care of them. They were making a racket out on our deck one evening and we looked out the LR windows and saw two little ones playing with a huge mama standing by. The little ones are cute, but I wouldn't want to mess with the big mama.

"...but we just let the coyotes, bobcats and mt. lions take care of them."

I was thinking the same thing. We've been in our current home for 6 years and have seen coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and bears. However, not a single raccoon...yet.