Originally Posted by
indyfabz
I live in Philly. In addition to rats and mice being around where I live, we have possums and raccoons right in my alley. I think it was a 'coon that got into my trash on the back deck several years ago after I forgot to seal the lid to the can. I live pretty close to an expansive park area with lots of large trees. Perfect place for them to live and plenty of neighborhood trash nearby to feed on. One day my neighbor was on her ground-level patio reading when a mouse started running around. Maybe 3 month ago a possum was lurking around. He got into their space, waked along the fence and started staring in the neighbor's window and they were preparing dinner. I stated waiving at them and thing walked off. They have a little fountain out back they told me something stole a couple of their fake plastic fish. I will bet it was a 'coon. I once had one try to steal a completely empty pannier while on a tour.
Neighbor's fence back in early December 2021. The photo doesn’t do his size justice. He was really fat.
At some point, a section of the old fence that was there when we bought the house came down - rotted post footings. We put up a 3' tall fence of T-posts and 2x4 wire fencing, which kept the dogs in, but not the critters out. Mostly, raccoons didn't come into the yard till way late at night, but skunks were a lot less particular, and one time our Eskie, Kyoko, took a full blast to the face. It was so close it stained her fur yellowish, and so intense the smell was more like gasoline than skunk.
BTW, we learned that the way to de-skunk a dog is with Hydrogen Peroxide and dish soap. it is AMAZING.