I couldn’t help but call my son’s attention to this ABC News report of February 9, 2014, I’d been telling him for several years that a doggie/cat door is dangerous and this report proves it. He has already experienced a visit from a small terrapin and several dead birds and goodness knows what else that I’ve not been told about. I’ve warned him to lookout for snakes, raccoon’s, and other critters from the wild as well.
I reminded him of a friend who had a full-grown German shepherd dog and she had to put in a rather large sized doggie door and one evening she came home from work and found her dirty laundry all over her yard; and a friend who was there exhibited how far he could get into the doggie door because of its size and someone smaller could crawl right in.
A woman, Ginny Ballou, who lives in Hingam, Massachusetts climbed into bed one night and was on her way to pleasant dreams as she reached over to pet her tomcat; and she got the surprise of her life as she ran her fingers through old tomcat’s fur…it was coarse and that of a deranged raccoon.
The raccoon had come in through a cat’s door and slipped into bed with the 73-year-old Ballou; and it proceeded to jump into her face and locked onto her lower lip and locked its jaws, according to police in Hingam, Massachusetts.
Ballou and the raccoon had a bout before she could pry the raccoon off of her lip with her thumbs and hurl it into the floor.
Ballou could not be contacted to make a comment, but her daughter gave the details of the raccoon’s ordeal with her mother to WCVB, an affiliate of ABC News.
Ballou had to use her landline telephone to punch the raccoon on its head before it made a departure from her bedroom; and slamming her bedroom door shut and calling 911 for help, according to Jen Bowles.
Animal Control and environmental police arrived and found the raccoon, hiding behind the toilet and roped and snared it.
Leslie Badger, Hingham Animal Control Officer, assisted in subduing the raccoon and took it to a veterinarian where it was euthanized and tested positive for the rabies.
Due to the rabies situation, Ballou had to receive the first of a number of required rabies shots and then was released from the hospital with puncture wounds on her thumbs and fingers, stitches on her lip and scratches on her face and neck.
My question is…doggie/cat door acceptable or not acceptable?
Barbara Kasey Smith is the writer of this article based on an ABC News report.
Source:
ABC News