this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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Funny

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 6 months ago (2 children)

This seems like it could end badly.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You sound like a cat hater.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Raccoons have been known to kill cats. Sounds like a cat lover.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

No way in frigid hell would I let my cats near a raccoon. Fuck the fuck no. They’ve got rabies and all other manner of nasty communicable diseases. Don’t care what sub it is, this is negligent.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

These are allegedly strays all coming in off the same street. Cat food is probably better for this raccoon than garbage, and it's nice to see a human presumably offering a safe alternative and looking out for the wildlife IMHO. Those potential diseases are at least somewhat our fault.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

It's a stray cat though?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Pepé Le Pew?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 6 months ago (6 children)

Aside from their defense response, are skunks generally chill animals? I never thought about it but I wonder how well they get along with humans if domesticated (or at least, raised in captivity).

[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago

Some people do keep them as pets (with their smell-producing glands removed)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

I met the sweetest skunk ever at a city Halloween event.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Anytime I see one it is just bopping around yards at 2 AM and seems pretty chill unless a loud noise spooks it and it vanishes. I wouldnt want to accidentally corner one near a fence though, Ive heard they are liberal with their spray

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

In my experience they're generally pretty shy, they're chill as long as nobody makes any sudden moves.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

I had one walk into my house, check out my bedroom closet and leave, all while I was moving in some furniture one evening

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

You can get the spray glands surgically removed and after that they're somewhere between a cat and a ferret. I've always wanted one, but they're illegal here on account of being scavengers.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Better check your vaccine card

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Spiking the food with oral vaccines

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

I can tell that you like to party

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Everybody! "Smelly cat, smelly cat, what are they feeding you?"

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

It's not your fauuult!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (1 children)

2/3 of these animals aren't in my country so I don't know about the logistics but this seems really cool!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Racoons are smart and will get into anything. They frequently figure out lids and containers.

Skunks are cool, but if they spray, your whole neighborhood is going to stink for a while.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

From a distance? Really good weed.

Up close and personal? I can't even begin to describe it. It's not even so much a smell as it feels like acid burning your nostrils and eyes and simultaneously stomach churning so you want to gag or vomit until it is cleaned off. I would rather fall face first in a fresh cow pie than be sprayed by a skunk again.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Wow that's quite the bioweapon!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Quite literally. Human and other mammal scent receptors are very sensitive to thiols, sulfur compounds that are frequently found in sources of danger, like rotting corpses, feces, and toxic gas. Skunks evolved their spray to take advantage of this with high concentrations of thiols and compounds that help to adhere to things. It's like an olfactory flashbang.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

That's so fascinating. Thanks for the specifics!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

My husky got sprayed once on a late night walk. She was so confused -- she just wanted to be friends!

She got two jets: one in the facial area and another on her rump. The stuff near her face came out relatively quickly (think a timeline of months), whereas the spray on her butt really got the chance to soak in to her double coat. It would still smell ~5 years later if she got wet, just absurd staying power.

It did eventually fade or, at the very least, became less distinguishable from the general smell of wet dog

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

So you take a bad beer that's been sitting in the sun for a few months. You know that smell?

Ramp that up a few orders of magnitude to the extent that it seizes up your breathing and makes your eyes tear up to the point of near blindness.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Thanks. That was not what I was expecting; for some reason I was basing my imaginary skunk smell on the smell of rotten fish.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Closer to rotten egg than fish but not quite. It's caused by sulfur compounds similar to those in weed and bad beer as suggested (or beer that's bottled in clear or green glass and left in the sun - brown and cobalt glass block the UV that causes the compounds to form) but there's a wider "pallette" of odors in much higher concentration.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is so neat! Skunk smell is such an iconic, well known, horrendous animal smell in North America. I've never considered someone would not know what it smells like!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Yeah it's not really something you export, so I can't sample it ha ha. Even now that everyone's telling me it's still just an imaginary smell to me.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I remember seeing a youtube comment saying "skunks are like cats that constantly point a gun at you"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Cats have knives anyways

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

Hello yes I am very much a cat

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Foxes are dogs

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Because I know now.. I'm posting the link, still think the club is cool

https://youtu.be/60I2b5gf1lo?si=M7u-olbrYKfrGIV5

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

That's so cool!