baby raccons

redangie24 · Post by **redangie24** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 7:48 am

Last night I took Ivana with me while I took out the trash. I opened the lid and screamed. I was shocked there were two baby raccons in there. Ivana tried her best to get them it was hard to get her back in the house with them out there she really wanted to get them. I was unsure what to do at first since I know raccons are generally pretty mean. But I soon realized it was not going to big of a deal I think they were over heated. They probably had been in there all day. I called a friend (from across the street) so she could check it out and we noticed they were not moving much. Just kinda laying there. So when we were across the street my husband came out and pushed the can over. It was almost empty since we just had our trash pick up the other day. One of them came right out and went up a tree. The other one took some work to get out. My husband turned it upside down and still had to shoosh it to get it to go. I was a little concerned that he might get bit, but it turned out okay. I really wish I had gotten a picture, but when I was going for the camera I got sidetracked and did not remember until my hubby was letting them go. But it was just a shock and kinda cute I have never seen a baby raccon before just the adult one that hangs out in our tree. I don't know that it really lives there I just normally see it there when I go for my runs in the evenings. Lucky for them I needed to take out the trash they could have died in there before we got out there again. I normally only go out there every couple of days. Anyway I just had to share. Really wish I had gotten some pics there were so cute. Too bad they grow up mean.

Judy Fox · Post by **Judy Fox** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:06 am

Aaw! poor little things - anyway, I trust they will be ok now, even if they do grow up to be mean.

redangie24 · Post by **redangie24** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:43 am

Oh, yes they live on base so they are protected. You cannot harm any wildlife on base-- not even the mean ones like the alligators!!!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 10:33 am

You have alligators on base? Really?

redangie24 · Post by **redangie24** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 12:31 pm

Yes, really alligator live here on base. There used to be a place just off the flight line and another next to the horse stalls where you could drive up and look down and see the alligators. Buts some dumb ppl decided they were going to get out of thier cars and some even decided that feeding them would be a good idea. So they got moved somewhere out of public space. My mom was really upset she really wanted to see a live gator, but she will have to settle for Wild Adventure alligators. I tried to find the newspaper article on the web, but I couldn't it was problably too long ago since it was about 2 yrs ago that they got moved. They don't come up in the yard or swamps or anything you normally don't see them anymore unless you are in one of the hunting areas, but you cannot harm them since they are protected wildlife. You can shoot deer, but only in the hunting areas.

Post by **jerryo** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 3:21 pm

Actually, the racoons aren't necessarily "mean", just very able to take care of themselves in an eat-or-be-lunch world, kinda like our Chows.

A highschool friend had one as a pet. They are extremely smart and mischevious. His lived in a box on the back porch, and they started to notice that the light would come on during the night for no reason, then go out in a few minutes. They discovered that the racoon was getting up and turning on the light to rearrange his bed, then turning it off and going back to sleep.

They are also good rabies vectors, so the wild ones are nothing to take risks with.

redangie24 · Post by **redangie24** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 5:42 pm

Wow, Jerryo that is amazing would have never thought they were smart enough for that-- I knew they were smart since they can get into things that are supposed to be racoon safe but darn turn a light on and off to rearrange his bed. I would not want to mess with a little guy that smart.

Yvonne · Post by **Yvonne** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 5:50 pm

Redangie,

I'd be interested in hearing more about what life is like on a military base. I've never had any experience with that and it sounds totally different from what I would have expected.

How big is the base?

redangie24 · Post by **redangie24** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:35 am

The one I am at right now is pretty small. It sits on 8,722 acres and is in the process of kicking us all off base so they can built new houses for officers and tell the rest of us to figure it out huff. There is "music" 4x a day at 6:30 am reveille, noon just to annoy us is the siren test shortly before or after is the bomb of the day, 5pm retreat, and 10 pm again just to annoy they play taps -- when they play the 6:30 and 5pm music if you are driving you have to pull over if you are out of your car you have to stand at attention. But if you are home you will hear the warning music to let you know it is gonna start that is when ppl at home run inside so they don't have to stand there-- yup were mostly lazy

We have "yard nazis" I did not pick the name thats pretty much what they get called everywhere. Come around and check your yard to make sure your grass is cut and trimmed, bushes are trimmed, weeds are pulled, and there is no debris in the yard. Quality control comes around to make sure you never water except on your days odds or even and between 8pm-6am. If you do anything wrong on base or your spouse or children do you will get into trouble at work. Including if you get rude with someone somewhere so be nice. Other than that it is just like a mini city. There is a grocery store, convience store, gas station, medical clinic or hospital, theather, furniture store, mech. shop, restraunts, library, education center, elementry school, fitness center, couple of ponds, nature center, 3mile running track, horse stalls and grazing feild, youth center, pools, dry cleaners, etc. Anything else you wanna know?

Post by **jerryo** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:28 am

The comment about the "yard nazis" really took me back in time. I got tapped for that duty at Mather AFB once. They used to stick junior officers waiting for assignments with doing it. We usually just wrote up the Base Commander, the Wing Commanders, any Squadron Commanders we didn't like, and maybe any REALLY bad situation we happened to drive past getting there and back. After that, it was hit the Officers Club for a couple of rounds, turn in the paper work and go home.

At Vandenberg AFB the game controls had caused such an over population of deer, we often had to shoo them off the sidewalk to get into the BOQ late at night.(Never mind why we were getting into the BOQ late at night. That's a whole other bunch of stories.) One of my favorite safety signs was a deer standing on his hind legs next to a guy hanging in a tree by his feet with a steering wheel around his neck. The caption was "Local Deer Bags Fine Vandenberg Motorist"

My favorite rudeness story also happened at Vandenberg. I got this from a Lt Col's daughter I was seeing at the time. Her younger brother worked part time at the base gas station. One day, a pushy Major came in and needed to get his car up on the lift to check something or other. It was a busy Saturday afternoon, so one of her brother's co-workers told him they would be with him as soon as possible. That wasn't good enough for him, so he tried to put it on the lift himself without help or authorization, did it wrong, messed up his car and proceeded to have a tantrum (the actual AF term is s***fit). He demanded that the kid at the service station call his father and tell him to report to Major ****'s office at 0900 Monday morning. The kid went to the phone and called his dad and reported back to the jerk, "Major, my dad says he has his staff meeting then, so he can't come to your office, but he will see you if his office right after the meeting. Just go to 1st Strategic Air Division HQ and tell them you have an appointment with General _____. He's the 1st StratAD Commander. He says you should have a nice weekend, and he's looking forward to meeting you."

Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

TXSusiQ · Post by **TXSusiQ** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:30 am

Oh how those stories take me back.

Colonel's daughter here!

redangie24 · Post by **redangie24** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:51 am

Jerryo- That would have been a great sign lol. I cannot get the pic outta my head now. And the rude major...Oh those stories I only have about a million. But they are too funny. Now the yard nazi job is done by civilians in the housing office. I have never been written up, but it seems that eveyone else we know have been. One girl across the street from me had this "flower" in her garden when she moved in. She let it grow it had little white flowers on it. She got written up a couple of weeks ago for that one "flower" its a weed!! But instead of just giving her a warning for the one weed out of perfect yard they wrote her up. But I got a good chuckle out of it. I better be careful or I will be next.

Post by **jerryo** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:27 am

The Air Police desk sergeant at Shemya AFB had another sign I could never forget, "The most dangerous thing in the world is a fool with a badge and a gun". I thought that was a great reminder for all his troops. You can probably modify that for a civilian bureaucrat with a rulebook. The incoming base commander at Alameda Naval Air Station was late for his change of command ceremony because he was driving his kid's VW bug. It had too many flower-power stickers on it, so the gate guard wouldn't let it on base. I think they probably changed that the next day.

One night when I was Staff Duty Officer at Air Force Satellite Control Facility, I got a call from the Air Police at Vandenberg. The Colonel who had just taken over as Chief of Network Operations had driven down to look over one of the 10 satellite tracking stations he was responsible for. He showed up at the main gate late at night, in civilian clothes, driving his old Porsche with the ragged top. He looked alot younger than he actually was, and needed a hair-cut, (which was pretty normal for him, his official picture came back twice with notes to get a haircut) so they arrested him for having a phony ID and impersonating a Colonel. I got the station commander to go get his boss out of jail. The Air Police were embarassed and the Colonel laughed about it for weeks.

Too many Stories, sorry but you know what they say about War Stories and fairy tales -- One starts "Once upon a time". The other starts with "No s**t, guys! This really happened!"

Judy Fox · Post by **Judy Fox** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 1:39 pm

Well here is a "No S**t, guys, this is true" one!
I have said before that Fred had a War Dog and when they came off Patrol when he was stationed in Germany, he had a game with Tex. He used to unload his side arm then click it and Tex would fall down and play dead.
One night they came in and Fred went through the ritual - only - I bet you have already guessed it - he had forgotten to unload his side arm and shot Tex. Before you panic, it was a wound and the Vet Corps sorted him out but of course, Fred's colleagues had to arrest him for "unlawful discharge of firearms". They could not lock him up in the Military Police "nick" 'cos he was one of their own so he had to be taken to the nearest regiment's guard room - The Royal Artillery - they loved it!! As you can imagine.
Anyway, his C.O. was on a few days leave but they sent for him and he came back to get Fred out!!
When he got out he had to pay the Vet. Corps for the treatment.
Your story Jerry amused me - having to send the Station Commander to get the Colonel out. Fred was never so pleased when his CO came for him!
Tex never held it against him but Fred never played that game again.

Post by **jerryo** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 1:52 pm

Good One, Judy!

I'm glad Tex was alright. Fortunately, we Texans are a forgiving lot and pretty hard to kill.

Did you hear the one about the cowboy from Louisiana that always went by the name of Tex. Turns out it made him mad to be called Louise.

Judy Fox · Post by **Judy Fox** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:31 pm

That joke (!) is just too stupid Jerry!!

Post by **jerryo** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 7:51 am

It is definately stupid, but it is now locked in your memory FOREVER!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:57 am

love these stories! Air Force (retired) brat, Army (retired) sister, Navy Mom, Navy Mom in law and Marine Mom. And those are just the most recent ones. LOL!

No stories but my favorite place that were stationed was in England. Loved everything about it, especially when it rained in the back yard but not the front

Sandie · Post by **Sandie** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:21 am

lol! I signed inm but came up as a guest. The above post was mine.
Sandie

redangie24 · Post by **redangie24** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:24 am

I have lots of good stories but cannot put any on here really. They are all adult themed...oh, but they are funny.

Post by **jerryo** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:33 am

I'll bet those ARE some funny stories. I hope I'm not in any of them. Maybe we need an adults only section of the site.

Post by **jerryo** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:36 am

Hey Sandie, what happened to the Coast Guard? Looks like you have everyone else covered.

Post by **chris** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 10:54 am

ummmm... no.. I won't go there.. I'll just leave that last comment alone..