Got charged by a raccoon this morning - Thrunite Catapult

My dog woke me up at 3am this morning for a walk. Grabbed my Thrunite Catapult and went out. When we were returning a 25 lb raccoon began to charge directly at us from 40 yards away. At first I thought maybe the raccoon was heading for a tree line, but no. We were walking through a parking lot and there were no tree lines, cars, or other obstructions within a 30 yard radius of me and my dog. Behind us was a wide open much larger empty parking lot, so nothing behind us.

I quickly wicked my Thrunite Catapult to 900+ lumens and trained the beam right on the eyes of the raccoon. I thought for sure I would have to defend myself and my dog. As the raccoon got closer and closer the animal was looking directly at me as I had a clear reflection if its eyes for the entire run. All I could think of was rabies. My 40lb Golden Retriever Border Collie mix dog was going nuts. The Thrunite Catapult threw a very powerful beam right at the Raccoon. The Raccoon got within 7 yards of us before it abruptly turned left and ran perpendicular to us across the open parking lot, over a chain link fence and into someones yard.

If I did not have that particular flashlight with the very strong and focused beam I am sure we would have been attacked.

You were extremely lucky! It sounds like the Raccoon had rabies like you said. They usually run off unless cornered.

Thrunite Catapult :nana: Raccoon w/ rabies:mecry:

Hope you had decent boots on and was ready for a punt kick raccoon catapult play.

Holy CR*P! Racoons can be very dangerous. I know a guy who had one; very smart animal, but he was also very protective. He once asked a friend to go in his appartment while he waited downstairs. The racoon went ballistic and actually started breaking through the bars of his cage with his teeth (not talkin about chicken wire either). The friend just closed the door and ran downstairs. Then the owner went in and released the racoon and no problem - friendly as ever.

My gears would definitely be grinding too in a similar situation, but maybe some people feed him and he was hoping you'd throw him some food...

gradio said:

Hope you had decent boots on and was ready for a punt kick raccoon catapult play.

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I don't know how a Raccoon attacks -- do they jump? I had Sorel Carabou boots on this morning. They are 12 inches high and could send a 25lb raccoon into orbit if I connected. That is, if I connected given that it was 3:30am in the morning.

Cataract said:

Holy CR*P! Racoons can be very dangerous. I know a guy who had one; very smart animal, but he was also very protective. He once asked a friend to go in his appartment while he waited downstairs. The racoon went ballistic and actually started breaking through the bars of his cage with his teeth (not talkin about chicken wire either). The friend just closed the door and ran downstairs. Then the owner went in and released the racoon and no problem - friendly as ever.

My gears would definitely be grinding too in a similar situation, but maybe some people feed him and he was hoping you'd throw him some food...

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This animal was in a fast sprint towards me and my dog.

I doubt it had rabies. You would've noticed an unbalanced posture and missing bits of fur. It's *really* obvious, there's no wondering whether an animal is rabid or not. Our species memory of rabies is where we get the idea for zombies from.

That's not to say there wasn't something else wrong with it, of course. Or maybe it didn't like the smell of your dog; raccoons don't play well with household pets.

Pretty much every other morning I have one or two racoons walk up to my boots during our "morning smoke/coffee/BS meeting" wanting food due to one co-workers penchant for feeding them. They usually get to see the *burst* setting on my HDS quite regularly .

RCS1300 said:

This animal was in a fast sprint towards me and my dog.

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I know the feeling. I once was hiking on my own and some unidentified animal started sprinting madly at me while making loud noises and it definitely looked like a racoon through the branches. I just ran like mad, no need to think twice. Full story on CPFEDCAQ (post #32)

fisk-king said:

Pretty much every other morning I have one or two racoons walk up to my boots during our "morning smoke/coffee/BS meeting" wanting food due to one co-workers penchant for feeding them. They usually get to see the *burst* setting on my HDS quite regularly .

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I also know this guy who lives away from the city. He leaves a bowl of food for his cats just out the patio door and has had mainly skunks, but the occasional racoon come and eat. He found out one morning; he opened the door and was breathing the fresh air when he looked down to see a skunk eating out of the bowl. The skunk just slowly looked up at him, then went back to its meal. He took a habit of checking first before opening the door and moved that bowl indoors when winter came.

A charging racoon is really a rare thing to see, especially if you're not coming close to it while it's eating. I'd ask the local pound to see what they think; he's still out there...

I might know what caused this behavior. I was walking down the street in this development one day, and it was a wooded development, when totally out of nowhere, a squirrel runs down the trunk of this tree about 20 feet from where I was walking and it ran directly towards me trying to attack me! I had no dog but I was wearing boots, so I kept trying to stick my foot in the air between myself and the squirrel to block it from attacking me, and I was shaking my foot around because I was worried it might try to leap onto my foot and quickly run up my leg, then up my shirt and bite me in the face! But It just kept doing these short charges towards me, then backing up.

Then suddenly it bolted about 15 feet away, and it grabbed a baby squirrel off the ground in its mouth, and ran back up the tree! It turns out its baby had just fallen out of the tree just before I walked up and it was just protecting it.

So maybe it had something to do with its young being threatened, or it saw you as a threat, because maybe you were close to its stranded baby like with the squirrel.

fyrstormer said:

I doubt it had rabies. You would've noticed an unbalanced posture and missing bits of fur. It's *really* obvious, there's no wondering whether an animal is rabid or not. Our species memory of rabies is where we get the idea for zombies from.

That's not to say there wasn't something else wrong with it, of course. Or maybe it didn't like the smell of your dog; raccoons don't play well with household pets.

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+1

Often times animals with rabies will seem to be pretty calm. An animal that would normally run away will allow you to approach it because the rabies virus causes encephalitis in the brain. Lots of people get bitten this way because they approach a rabid animal instead of the other way around.

RCS1300 said:

My 40lb Golden Retriever Border Collie mix dog was going nuts.

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you mean like barking? :shrug:

shelm said:

you mean like barking? :shrug:

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Yes, barking and pulling at the leash. She wanted that animal to know that she was ready.

For some reason, whenever I hear an animal described as "smart" the words "trouble," "attack," "mischief," and "cunning" come to mind.

Given how intelligent raccoons are, I am betting there was some reason it desired to charge two animals both obviously larger than itself.

If I lived in an area that has potentially vicious animals wandering about and I had to take late night walks, I'd carry a retractable baton with me. Flick it out to full extension, and now you have something to bat an animal with while blinding it with a flashlight in the other hand.

When I go for walks at night I usually take several lights, including a Mag85.

Can't at all rely on a flashlight u need a solid taser, i think a taser is a better weapon than a gun. Better against animals, and against thugs no permanent damage or legal problems. Hell if somebody pulls a knife on me i'll just say "Hey pal are u interested in 2 million volts?" He's gonna roll. For animals i'd rather zap something then have 30 people calling the police because of gun fire

I'm glad nothing got hurt. FYI-You could also carry a pistol for these night walks. Concealed carry/Open Carry is legal in CT and a firearm light is another light to add to the collection

Maybe there were babies around. Although this is not the time "kits". Some mama's can get quite defensive if a threat is perceived. Your dog would be considered a kit eating wolf. oo: