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Sunday, November 9, 2008

Work-related: Okay, who threw away the raccoon?

Went to the dumpster to throw away some stuff the other day. Lifted up the lid, threw in the stuff (sleeves from some blooming plants we'd just gotten and unwrapped), and then did a double take. Was that . . . a cat?


Nope.

I checked on it a number of times during the morning, and it was still in there for a good couple hours, even after I left the top open so it could get out. It was obviously still alive, 'cause I saw it breathing, and it turned its head to look at me a couple times, but it didn't seem alarmed at being discovered or in any big hurry to get away. It seemed more like it was annoyed at me for waking it up. (Maybe it was sick?)


At some point, I checked and it was gone; I don't know if it had actually gotten out and gone somewhere else, or if it had just burrowed deeper into the trash to get away from the light. In any case, I realized that I am not familiar enough with raccoon behavior to know whether this particular animal was sick or dying or sleepy or what. Not that there's anything much I could have done on behalf of a sick raccoon anyway, but one would hope for a more dignified end than a garden center dumpster.

Or perhaps it was just exceptionally smart, or thoughtful, and was trying to save us the trouble of disposing of its dead body? I wish I knew whether it got out or stayed in.
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4 comments:

  1. Melissa Gay ArtNovember 9, 2008 at 5:33 AM

    I've always been told never to approach a raccoon who is out during the day, as they may be rabid. But this one wasn't really *out* during the day, having burrowed into the trash and all-- maybe he was just reeeeeally sleepy after having gorged himself on whatever food was in there. :)

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  2. AnonymousNovember 9, 2008 at 3:41 PM

    Okay this is creeping me out, first MSS at Zanthan gardens finds the dead raccoon and then you find this one, dead or alive or a zombie raccoon, who knows? Our kittens were killed by raccoons so I have little love lost on them, but dead anythings are disturbing, or even worse, in the process of dying.
    Frances

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  3. Aunt Debbi/kurts momNovember 9, 2008 at 4:44 PM

    Great, now I am going to have zoombie raccoon nightmares.

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  4. AnonymousNovember 14, 2008 at 6:36 PM

    Having worked in a garden center, I was hooked right away by your blog title info... and love the title of this post! Are you sure it was a racoon? Maybe a possum? I agree with skeptic, though, whatever it was probably thought it had found a great crash pad...

    kind of reminds me, though, of the day that a customer's kids found a dead rat under the houseplant shelves... and this self same customer had just a few minutes earlier been ambushed by our resident praying mantis, Phoebe. Not a good day for her at the garden center....

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