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Christi Diggs
on May 23 2013 - 06:00 AM
A drop of spin, a cup of deception and tsp. politics=Apathy
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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
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"We found a raccoon!" they said, as they ran from the backyard to the front.
Marc was having a sleepover with a couple of friends. Charlotte was running with the big boys just like she was one of them. She knew no different.
So when they announced there was a raccoon, I kinda freaked out just a little bit. Don't they only come out at night? Don't they have rabies? Or something?
I went to the back to investigate. There was a raccoon there alright. A dead one.
"Why is it just lying there?" one of the boys asked.
"It's dead," I told them.
Then the choir yelled "EWW!!" and fled the scene. A little girl shrieked a joyous shriek, not knowing the fear a dead animal brings.
A dead animal can evoke all kinds of evil, you know. It can be covered in fleas and flies, infested with maggots, it can smell, it can come back a zombie and eat your brains. You know. Evil.
My husband called the city while I tried to explain to the kids why they couldn't go into the backyard and field their many questions. How did it die? Are you sure it's not just sleeping? Can I touch it? Can I touch it with this stick? Can you touch it? Are you sure it's not a cat?
Unfortunately, the city told my husband that the animal control office was closed and to call 911. 911 told him it wasn't an emergency and to call the animal control office on Monday.
Ugh.
Gross. We were looking at two days of a dead carcass on our property. I suppose we could have dug a hole and buried it, but that would have required either of us touching it in some way. Even with gloves on, well, ew. We could have gotten a shovel under it and flung it into the yard of the abandoned house catty corner from us, but that really would have been unethical, and it still would have stunk up the neighborhood.
So, it sat there in our yard, mocking our children as they desperately wanted to play back there.
I mean, what if I wanted to have a friend over for coffee?
"Oh my, what's that interesting lawn ornament in your yard?"
"Oh that? Why, that's my dead raccoon! Isn't it just the most charming thing? I hear they're all the rage in Paris!"
Well, Monday afternoon brought my first chance to call 311. The lovely woman on the other end of the phone kindly told me that the city would be out in 48 to 72 hours to get the raccoon. She asked me to bag it up for them, because they don't like to go onto people's property.
"Ew," I told her. "I know," she said with a kind understanding.
We didn't have a chance to bag it up Monday night before the sun went down. I had planned on taking care of it myself after work on Tuesday. They wouldn't be here for 48 hours, after all.
But then, Tuesday morning, as I was slurping my morning coffee, I heard voices coming from our side yard. The voices traveled, and I saw someone walking through our yard out the back window. I then caught two men in orange vests walking around the other side of the house, seeing the unmistakeable outline of a raccoon in the black plastic bag they were carrying.
It was the city. They were early. It was 17 hours, not 48. Wow, that was fast! And they bagged it up themselves? Oh, glorious day this is!
And now, our raccoon is gone. I never even really got to know it. Did it ever go through our trash? Did it have any babies anywhere? Was that the thing scaring my cats? I'll never know. But I have to say, I'm glad it's gone. Rest in piece, anonymous raccoon.
Have you ever had anything die in your yard? This is my first. We've had run-ins with live possums and stray dogs, but never a dead animal. I have to commend the pubilc works department of Kansas City, though. They were on it!
We have dealt with dead animals either because another animal leaves it (or part of it) in our front yard or because the unfortunate animal made its way to our back yard & our dogs thought it was play time. Either way, we've buried the remains in our woods using a long handle shovel to pick up the bodies (spouse does this).My saddest animal encounter was when a rabbit was in some deep brush in our next door neighbor's back yard, right by our fence. I thought it was hiding, and then thought it was injured when it wouldn't move. I picked it up and put it in a shoebox, hoping to nurse it to health, but it was mortally wounded. It then had a chance to relax and die peacefully, without worry of further attack. It seemed to feel like it was ok to let go, now that it was safe to close it's eyes. Like your kids, we had quite the discussion about death with our kids after that. Which was a good thing, I believe.Since we live on the main street for three subs we get quite a bit of animal run over. I won't tell you the details but it involves a shovel, and the dogs poop bag. That is better than dead rabbit in the easement we see on our walks passing someone else's house. They just left it in the easement to decay. Now that was gross to see.
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