R is for Raccoon

Our office moved into the big city of Salem a few years back.  At my old office, in Stayton, our office, equipment yard, and material storage buildings were all on one lot.  It was next to a mobile home park and there were a large amount of stray cats that would come into our yard to do their business.

The former owner of this company (he was in his late 80's-early 90's during this time), would trap the cats, take them down to the vet and get them fixed.  Whether they had a collar with tags or not.  I'll bet he's had hundreds of cats fixed over the years.  That vet is going to go broke when Mr. E dies. 

Since raccoons and skunks are fond of the same food that cats enjoy, Mr. E would quite often find a skunk or a raccoon in the trap when he went to check.  He named to raccoons: Rosemary Cooney and Andy Cooney.  So clever.  I don't know what he ever did with the skunks.  There were many offers from the field guys to shoot them ("them" being the cats, the raccoons AND the skunks) but there was no way Mr. E would allow that.

For Christmas one year, all of the employees got together and a large, wood, dog house for his cats.  I think he had at least 10-15 of them living or eating in the yard at that time. 

More than once we had to buy new boots, works pants, work shirts, etc. for some hapless employee who happened to go around the side of the storage building and get sprayed by a skunk who was enjoying some cat food.  More than once there were threats to shoot the cats, raccoons and skunks.  It never happened.

In the spring, it was fun to go out and see the kittens.  They were wild as march hares though so you could never catch one.  Lots of people tried, but no one ever took one home.

Mr. E liked to name them all too.  The only two I remember are Bubbles and Friendly.  Bubbles was killed when a straw bale fell and squished her.  Our poor shop manager was blamed for her death although I think it was an accident.  Friendly died a relatively mild death comparatively, but we had to throw away a chair from the general manager's office because of the bodily fluids that leaked out of him during the process.  Friendly was no friend to anyone in the office except Mr. E.  If you happened to leave your office door open while you were gone, there was a good chance a hairball might be hacked up on your desk.

I guess this post had more to do with cats than Raccoons, but I can't see a Raccoon without thinking of old Rosemary and Andy.

j