Baby Coon in my Pool

When I arrived home from work last night and walked through the garage to the back yard, I found a baby racoon in the pool. Thankfully he was still alive, but clearly exhausted, paddling around the sides of the deep end. I dropped my stuff and rushed for the leaf rake and lifted him out. He sat on the rim not moving, struggling to breathe, seemingly in shock. His frightened little eyes held mine the entire time. I've no idea if he was there for 10 minutes or hours -- wonder how long a youngster coon can last paddling around?

I went to the back of the property and gently put the end of the leaf rake over the privacy fence (there's a large area of woods there) and turned it over. Then I retracted it, set it down and did a chin up on the fence. He stood on some bramble still struggling to breathe properly, making snorting sounds. Five minutes later I returned to the fence and did another chin up and saw that he was gone, and was so relieved to know he wasn't done in by my pool. For me, that would've been traumatic. In fact I have a hunch I would've had visions of having it filled in.

I once thought of letting my kickboard float around in the pool in case a squirrel or other critter finds themselves in trouble, but it invariably ends up at the skimmer and then blocks tree debris from going in. Still, I might put it in there anyway. Hey I just had an idea. I could tether it to the half moon hardware that's on either side of the shallow end for the kiddie rope I took down when I bought the place five years ago. Assuming the critter would make it to that end? Since we're in a severe drought here, today I also started leaving a small pail of fresh water each day by the pool's edge. Poor wildlife that's so thirsty they risk life for a drink of water, chlorinated at that!

Glad you found him before he got too tired and gave up!

Janet

They're good swimmers. Way back when, when I hunted 'coon, one led one of my dogs into a pond, waited till she was in the middle of it, and then jumped on the her head and drowned her. It was a shame, she was a very good hound; a blue tick.

Many people something in the pool that small animals can get on and use to get out of the pool. I think there are even some products sold specifically for that purpose that include a ramp for the animal to climb out of the pool on.

Edit: Here's the Skamper Ramp. Looks like it's a little under $50.00 from various online retailers. I'm sure there are other similar products.

Yes, that would have been a traumatic experience -- for both of you. I'm glad you were able to save the little thing.

How about floating a noodle in the pool? It's too large to block the skimmer althoough it would probably get stuck in there. But enough of it would stick out for a critter to find it and clamber up.

Anna

I found a sad, wet, looking mouse clining on to a pool noodle for dear life one evening last summer. That's the only mouse that made it out of the pool, all the others I found were in the skimmer or done in otherwise.

The skamper-ramp looks like the best choice. I did put kickboard in there but thing is, it probably won't help critter get out of pool (and would said critter be intelligent enough to stay put until help arrives)? Watched the video, didn't know so many pets perish in pools. What a terrible thing to watch. I don't think a frog or mouse would be saved by anything because proportional to their size finding a float or ramp might be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

As it turns out, I had another visit a few days after the first one. When describing the critter to a neighbor he said they weren't [baby] coons at all! He said they're possums! Even though they're hairless, they sure leave lots of dirt and crud in the pool. Now I know why sometimes in the a.m. the bottom is filled with crud even though we had no storms or high winds overnight. Apparently on many occasions those possums were actually able to get out on their own.

On another subject, I had a HUGE pine taken down yesterday that dumped buckets of pine straw into the pool every time a storm with high winds came up, so I'm looking forward to the next storm, assuming it ever rains in the south again. Talk about drought...

Thanks everyone for sharing and suggestions.

We used 2 skamper ramps for 2 years. We adjusted them to fit the edge of the pool better. Not sure if they worked well or not - still had our annual 'opening sacrifices'. (Forgive the euphemism - I always got very upset when I couldn't save an animal).

THen last year wehen I opened, we had a baby chipmunk fall in - I'd had it. I bought one of the leaf nets designed for keeping on top of winter covers. I got it oversize for the pool and attached it to a solar cover reel. When the pool is not in use we 'tether' it down to the deck with loose bricks. When we're ready to use the pool, we push aside the bricks, fold the long edges in and roll it up. It's not going to stop a child or larger dog from falling in (we have a fence to keep them at bay) but for squirrels, coons, chipmunks and other small animals seeking a drink, it's worked brilliantly. They actually know to hang on the netting over the edge to grab a drink.

We haven't had a single fatality in 2 seasons. It's a pain to go through the process and the pool isn't as pretty looking when idle, but no more baby animals dead and it keeps the leaves out. I only vac the pool once every 10 days now. THe pool was installed in 1981 - waaaay before you could get those fancy retractable safety/solar covers for inground pools.

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Originally Posted by KurtV

They're good swimmers. Way back when, when I hunted 'coon, one led one of my dogs into a pond, waited till she was in the middle of it, and then jumped on the her head and drowned her. It was a shame, she was a very good hound; a blue tick.

Many people something in the pool that small animals can get on and use to get out of the pool. I think there are even some products sold specifically for that purpose that include a ramp for the animal to climb out of the pool on.

Edit: Here's the Skamper Ramp. Looks like it's a little under $50.00 from various online retailers. I'm sure there are other similar products.

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Thanks for that tip, Kurt. My 5yo daughter has become enamoured of the family of rabbits that sneak into and out of the pool yard. I don't have the heart to tell her they're short one because it got into the pool a couple weeks ago and didn't survive. I'll be looking into this tomorrow.

Also, affirmative on the coons being a threat to dogs in the water. I grew up in the Adirondacks, on a lake, and we had dogs. And since I was small we were warned about this threat from coons. They can most definitely hold their own in the water and may be the smartest critter in the woods.


C.