Raccoon attacks girl, 6, as she plays with friends

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?g7699_BC_MI--RaccoonAttack&&news&newsflash-michigan ^

[Dan from Michigan]

Raccoon attacks girl, 6, as she plays with friends

The Associated Press
6/10/02 5:40 PM

GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- A raccoon attacked a 6-year-old girl in front of several friends, biting her 10 times after jumping on her back.

Samantha Ortiz of Georgetown Township, which is near Jenison in eastern Ottawa County, was walking on a bicycle trail with five friends about 6:30 p.m. Friday when she looked back and saw the raccoon.

She said she moved to the side of the trail to let the animal pass, but it jumped on her back and started biting.

"I put my hand down and it was biting me. It was growling like a dog and biting me all over," Samantha told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Monday. "Maybe he smelled chicken 'cause I didn't wash my hands after I ate."

Samantha said she was scared because her friends ran away when the raccoon attacked.

"I didn't know if it was going to kill me," she said.

When the animal tried to bite her toes, the girl said she put one of her friend's bikes on top of the raccoon and ran home.

Her mother, Dee Cardero, said she was hysterical when she heard Samantha screaming.

"I ran and opened the front door and saw blood all over her," Cardero said.

Samantha had bites on her hands, arms and legs. She was treated at Spectrum Health Butterworth hospital, where she received rabies shots in the area of each bite.

The series of shots will continue for a month, her parents said.

[Judith Anne]

Winglocks! Haha! It's nice if you know them as hatchlings, they grow up friendlier...Mama Goose is very sweet and can be petted, but Papa Goose is completely mean. Once, he almost died from some illness or snakebite--his feathers were scruffy, he was staggering, and he couldn't lift his head up. I wouldn't have bothered with him except Mama Goose was clearly upset, hovering around him...

I picked his head up and drizzled water down his throat, when he seemed near death, and he gave me a look that said, "If I recover, I'll kill you." I gave him a look that said, "If you recover, I'd like to see you try it." He recovered, and has had a special hatred for me ever since, as though, since I saved him, I was the source of his illness as well. The big yard dog always stays between me and him, although I won't let the dog go after the goose.

Yes, I believe that geese can break bones with their wings, and they are like bulldogs, they don't let go when they get hold of something.

But on a summer evening, when the green lawn and the darker trees glow in the sunset, the geese walk together out to the barn, side by side, with soft honks and stately mein, beautiful huge birds with spotless gray and white feathers...

[Judith Anne]

We live in the south central area, it's very beautiful and very sparsely populated. Property is priced very low, but there are few jobs. Millions vacation in our area, near and in the Mark Twain National Forest. Exquisite. A lot of mineral resources, but the environazis are horrible, and their lawsuits have kept mining out, dammit, but that's another thread....

[Attillathehon]

Raccoons got into my attic one night and woke me up screaming at 3:00 a.m. They sounded like a bunch of cats fighting. The entrance to my attic is right in my bedroom and it scared the H&*^ out of me. They had gotten in through a broken vent and went out the same way. At 5:00 a.m. we were in HOme Depot buying new vents and replaced them all the same day. My neighbor wasn't so lucky. The got into her walls and nested there. One died inside the walls and the smell was awful. They had to break through the walls and exterminate the place. A real mess!

[Mark17]

She oughta like this one

I agree, so why don't you ping her?

[mamelukesabre]

You use shotguns on cottontails??

Where's your sense of sport?? Use a twenty two rimfire pistol loaded with hyper velocity hollowpoints...that's way more fun.

[mamelukesabre]

You got wild pigs and turkeys and deer too, right? Sounds like a hunters/nature lovers dream. I remember when I was a kid, we spent 2 to 4 weeks a year down there. I used to go hiking in the woods and look for lizzards, fossils, tarantulas(sp?), indian artifacts, and tracks...all while trying to avoid ticks and snakes. Not many people are aware that tarantulas exist in the wild in those parts.

[Judith Anne]

Haha! Yes, tarantulas, about twice a year, they migrate...funny to see them running across the road...I was doing yard work, turned over a rock, and a really large one crawled out...they don't bother me as much as the hornets, though...and I did get a scorpion sting a several years ago walking into the barn...It knocked me down to my hands and knees, felt like someone hit my back with a board with a nail sticking out of it, the skin turned yellow for about 8 inches around it, all the muscles were sore for weeks, it left a little pit.

Yes, the Missouri Ozarks are a nature lover's dream...;-D (Just kidding, we'll never leave!)