Why I am envious of you country folks

[BirdOfPray]

For the record, I used to live in the country and I loved it. Then I got married and moved to suburbia, which is mostly tolerable but occasionally irks me. Today is one of those days.

This afternoon my neighbor (the obnoxious one -- I'm sure most of you have one of those) knocked on the door to tell me there's a dead raccoon on my yard. The thing was within a few feet of his yard, so he could have taken care of it just as easily, but whatever. Glad he didn't just ignore it. I went out to look and sure enough, there it was. I think it may have been dying this morning, because I heard something scratching at that side of the house and assumed it was just the obnoxious neighbor doing something obnoxious as usual.

So, I went back inside and called 311 (non-emergency generic city services number). Waited and got to talk with Brian, who told me that solid waste services would pick up the raccoon if I put it at the curb. I made the mistake of asking, "So should I just put it out there when I get off the phone?" thinking that no one really wants a rotting varmint carcass in the street any longer than necessary. Brian then informed me that I am not allowed to actually make the request that it be picked up until I've moved it to the curb. I was tempted to ask if we could just pretend it was at the curb, make the request, and I'd take care of it as soon as we got off the phone. But Brian didn't seem to be very sympathetic, so I just asked, "So I need to hang up the phone, move the raccoon, and then call back and go through this again?" Brian said yes. Nuts.

So I said goodbye to Brian and went in search of the pitchfork. Scooped up the dead critter, deposited it in the street by the curb where I normally place my garbage can, and put away the pitchfork. Incidentally, I would have just shoveled the thing into the trash can, but I think they have policies against that, and trash pick-up was just yesterday so I really don't want this thing in my trash can until Wednesday. This is Texas -- it's supposed to be in the 60's and 70's the next few days. I was really looking forward to that until the prospect of a rotting raccoon entered the picture.

So, I called 311 again and this time got to talk to Chris. Chris put in the request for me, and informed me it would be up to two business days. Hm. This is Thursday. Friday... and then Monday? This critter is going to sit in the street for four days before getting picked up? My neighbors have small children. My other neighbors have dogs that they walk past our house. It's supposed to be in the 70's over the weekend. Hoping to expedite pick-up, I mentioned, "It isn't very obvious how this thing died, and it looks kind of young. What if it was diseased? We have a lot of kids in our neighborhood." Chris helpfully informed me that that would be a matter for animal control, and animal control is not concerned unless multiple animals are dying in my yard. I was tempted to tell Chris that could be arranged. For the record, I would NEVER kill an animal that wasn't edible and didn't need killing. But Chris didn't know that. However, Chris works for the government and therefore I doubt if he has a sense of humor, so I just thanked him and left it at that. Monday it is.

I really miss just being able to toss things like that over the fence into the pasture and letting them rot where they won't bother anyone.

[Lady Hobbs]

He's dead. He won't be going anywhere unless someone comes along, thinks you have something good in the bag and escapes with it. :)

[Deleted User]

What an exercise in frustration! Too bad you couldn't get Chris' or Brian's address. Maybe they could critter sit it for you until Monday [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[rich311k]

We are the opposite we can't put it on the curb until the night before pickup. I almost got a ticket for a couch once.

[jay2487]

Doesn't sound to suburbious(just made that up)if you have to worry about racoons dying in your yard! Sounds like it's a little more country than you thought! Your annoying neighbor probably poisoned it and ditched it on you lol

[BirdOfPray]

Rich -- that's kind of what I had been expecting. I know there are rules about how early I can put out the trash can, so I assumed something similar would apply to raccon corpses.

Jay -- we have an undeveloped lot behind us, where an apartment complex will eventually be built. They put it on hold because of the economy, so it's still just empty. In retrospect, I should have just tossed the raccoon over the fence.

[Northernguy]

Move it over to the other side of the obnoxious neighbors yard tonight when his lights are out.
If he asks just smile and say nothing.

I hope it didn't die from rabies.Other animals can get infected by the carcuss.

[Deleted User]

Ray, I was wondering / worrying about that but didn't know how it worked with rabies and dead animals. We had a rabid fox here years ago and I had a foal who hadn't had rabies shot (was too young in the fall and I hadn't yet done spring shots). I saw it in the day light and ran out of the barn to chase it away (just heart in my throat worried about my "baby"). It just looked over his shoulder at me and slowly walked away. It shouldn't have even been out in the daylight, much less not afraid of me (that's why I think it was rabid). My husband and friends had a fit but all I thought about was I didn't want it to get Skipper. And raccoons are NOTORIOUS for being rabid :scry:

[BirdOfPray]

Well, everything seems to be resolved. My other neighbor (who is not obnoxious) got her husband to shovel the thing into his truck and dispose of it elsewhere. I'm not sure if it's legal to dump a dead raccoon, so I claim to have been looking the other way if anyone asks. After a few minutes of debating with myself, I called 311 again and used my dead raccoon reference number to ask that the request for pick-up be cancelled as the raccoon is no longer there. Who knows, maybe there's some fine for making them come out to pick up something that's no longer there. This took about 10 minutes, and my understanding is that they didn't so much cancel the original request as send in a second request asking that the first be canceled. Really no skin off my nose if they come anyway, but I hate to waste my tax dollars that way.

So, I now have no raccoon but I do have a reference number for a request to pick up a dead raccoon AND a reference number for a request not to pick up a dead raccoon.

[Northernguy]

As far as I know the disease does not die off immediatly with the animal.Its in the blood too.Anything that participates in the meal can become infected.
A fox that is not shy of people is either starving or rabid.Most likely rabid.

Thats great news! lol I hope he doesn't get caught.I would have dumped in front of the animal control building.It won't take a week to get rid of it!lol

[BirdOfPray]

I hope it didn't die from rabies.Other animals can get infected by the carcuss.

That was my fear. I didn't see any obvious marks on it, so who knows why it died. It didn't look really old. It's been down in the 20's/30's overnight, so maybe it just froze or something, but I don't know. I did hear the neighbor's dog barking a lot last night, so if it was ill (rabies or otherwise) it could have been stumbling around out there for a while before finally dying.

When I was a kid one of our dogs found a dead bat and we made the mistake of telling animal control. They sent us through all sorts of rigmarole about how we had to quarantine her, and almost tried to make us quarantine all four of our dogs (only the one touched the bat) in separate enclosures. Plus they wanted those enclosures to be double fenced so that there would be no possibility of some wildlife licking our dogs through the fence or something. Rabies is spread via saliva, but really? What wildlife is going to lick a dog through a fence? Eventually they decided to let us quarantine her in a kennel we had on the back porch, and the poor baby didn't get any real interaction for 30 days while she was in there -- and she was still just a puppy. No rabies, though. I was amused that when the 30 days, the county called instead of sending someone out. I was about 13 or 14, and I was the one who answered the phone. They asked if they dog had showed any signs of rabies, and I said no. Then they asked, "How about you and your family?" Gee, now that you mention it... :hmm3grin2orange:

[Deleted User]

That is great news, Bird!

Ray, I bet you are right about rabies. That makes sense to me. And regardless, it's not healthy to have a dead animal laying around for sure.

[Northernguy]

Actually Bowzer got bit on the nose by another dog.Thats a really easy way to pass it.

[BirdOfPray]

Yeah, I guess a bite would definitely ensure saliva entering into the bloodstream. Ok, so the animal control folks weren't quite as crazy as I thought.

Did you lose a dog to rabies?

[gabbyguppy]

That was my fear. I didn't see any obvious marks on it, so who knows why it died. It didn't look really old. It's been down in the 20's/30's overnight, so maybe it just froze or something, but I don't know. I did hear the neighbor's dog barking a lot last night, so if it was ill (rabies or otherwise) it could have been stumbling around out there for a while before finally dying.

When I was a kid one of our dogs found a dead bat and we made the mistake of telling animal control. They sent us through all sorts of rigmarole about how we had to quarantine her, and almost tried to make us quarantine all four of our dogs (only the one touched the bat) in separate enclosures. Plus they wanted those enclosures to be double fenced so that there would be no possibility of some wildlife licking our dogs through the fence or something. Rabies is spread via saliva, but really? What wildlife is going to lick a dog through a fence? Eventually they decided to let us quarantine her in a kennel we had on the back porch, and the poor baby didn't get any real interaction for 30 days while she was in there -- and she was still just a puppy. No rabies, though. I was amused that when the 30 days, the county called instead of sending someone out. I was about 13 or 14, and I was the one who answered the phone. They asked if they dog had showed any signs of rabies, and I said no. Then they asked, "How about you and your family?" Gee, now that you mention it... :hmm3grin2orange:

This same thing happened to my dog. He was six months old and came running to me squeaking a toy, so I thought. Turns out it was a BAT! It was still alive and I made the mistake of telling him to 'drop it'. Well....he did, right at my bare feet.
I screamed which caused the pup to pounce on the bat which killed it. The bat was sent to the state lab for examination and was positive for rabies. The health department placed our pup under quarantine for 45 days. We had to boost his rabies vaccine at that time and give him another booster when the quarantine was lifted. The poor dog had THREE rabies vaccines within a years time.
We've had five confirmed cases of rabies on our property (1 bat, 4 skunks). I even vaccinate our sheep, it's not worth the risk of not vaccinating.

Karen

[Northernguy]

Thank God no!
That would be terrible.
I still haven't been able to watch Old Yeller! Its too disturbing.Its hard enough to put a dog down for other reasons.
I was told once that if an animal eats any part of a dead rabid animal it will get rabies.Everything I read doesn't mention that part.
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[Deleted User]

it's not worth the risk of not vaccinating.
I agree completely. We vaccinate our goats and horses annually. The vet does our dogs, but I do their other shots. I don't want the potential heartache of a dog biting someone and not being able to unquestionably prove vaccination. At least in our animals, it is a "rough" vaccine in that they are sore following it, but it's a chance we cannot take.

[Rue]

I feel for you.

Living in the country is great for disposing of organic material efficiently...and boy, it sure doesn't take long for nature to do what it's supposed to do.

A couple of years ago we had an emergency euthanasia of one of my ponies...I'm not overly sentimental when it comes to a carcass (vs. the living animal)...so we dragged the carcass to the back 40 and let nature go at it...

There was nothing left after a few months...it was wonderful. We did bury our other horse this summer - but we had time to get a back-hoe in to dig a grave...but I almost rather prefer the open ground...much faster...

[lobsternoob]

Geez, thats ridiculous Bird, so much BS(beaureacratic stupidity) just to get rid of a raccoon corpse. You're very right and quite considerate to be concerned about leaving the corpse on the curb over the weekend, who knows who's child or pet could get into it. We have raccoons galore here, and once in a while one will die in the yard, and I do not want my dogs anywhere near them, vaccinated or not. They eat trash, they carry more than just rabies, heartworm, ringworm, mange, you name it they got it. As to my knowledge there is no vaccine for mange...

They tried to pull that stuff on me the first time I called about a dead raccoon that they'd pick it up in a few days, well, I dropped the dang thing off at the front door of the police/animal control station(thankfully only a couple blocks away, so no big inconvenience.). I wasn't allowed to bring it inside and hand it over, but they told me on the phone I could personally bring it to animal control, tell me how the heck that's supposed to work?

I too envy people that live in the country, but for a different reason. I can't wake up in the morning, load up a fresh mag, and start blasting off rounds in my backyard anymore. Plus I have to pay for dechlorinator, and water filters just to drink or do WC's with the slop my city calls water.