Lots of rabid ones where I live. If you see one in daylight it is far safer to ensure the animal assumes room temperature than to risk any encounter.
>>If you see one in daylight it is far safer to ensure the animal assumes room temperature than to risk any encounter.
I saw one on my back porch a few weeks back. I opened the door and saw it under a lawn chair I had, looking up at me. I live on the third floor of an apartment house, and the woman on the 2nd floor has a cat; the cat was on the stairs leading up to my porch and meowing up at me as if to say "get this thing out of here!!" Scaredy-cat.
The raccoon went up onto a "half-roof" (the left side of the house extends a bit further than the right side, so this is what was covering that extension) and looked down at me,
shaking a bit (scared). No sign of rabies from what I could see. After a minute or so the raccoon seemed to relax, sensing I would do it no harm. I just looked up at it
calmly. Didn't pet it --didn't want to take a chance! Then the critter bounded over the side of the roof and probably jumped off safely from a low point (I couldn't see).
I mentioned this to a couple newsgroups and they said I did the right thing (in terms of not petting it). They said while it is true that some raccoons will come out in the late afternoon to "sun themselves" (and that's what time of day it was), you never know which ones are rabid and it's best to leave them alone--risk of rabies and who knows what else.