Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Heavens To Betsy-- Now What Do I Do?!?

Tanuki-chan... brought home on Papa's birthday (Monday)


So... I have a sick and/or injured Tanuki (Japanese Raccoon Dog) in my garage.

As you can see.

And anybody who's been following along on this blog knows exactly who brought it home.. (*cough*Koshi*cough*)

This time I swore the kids to secrecy--they were absolutely *not* to tell Papa, as I didn't think the poor man needed a heart attack for his fortieth birthday (yes-- Tanuki was brought home in the middle of cake and dinner preparations.  As ye sow, so shall ye reap.)

And I must leave off in a violent hurry, because I have to find a vet... or zookeeper... *quickly*... which is why I've got the computer on at this hour in the morning in the first place.  Thank goodness for Google.

Keep you posted :-))

Mata asobou, ne!  (Tell you more about Tanukis next post!)

16 comments:

  1. Is it really~!!!
    It's a very big news!
    I often watch suck a news, but it really happened!
    Go back your home, Tanuki chan!
    Anyway I live in Midoriku ^^
    Maybe no Tanuki around here?!

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  2. LOL! I had the pleasure of seeing one at a zoo recently. They are beautiful creatures, a bit more fox-like than I thought they would be. がんばってfinding some help for tanukichan!

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  3. What a lovely beast! Tell us more about it, and its legend, ASAP.

    Happy birthday to Yokohamapapa, too!

    Perhaps you don't know that the raccoon dog is a recurring feature on Maru's blog. Maru often claims that the mischief for which he's blamed is actually due to "another round creature such as a raccoon dog".

    See, for instance,

    http://sisinmaru.blog17.fc2.com/blog-entry-1023.html

    http://sisinmaru.blog17.fc2.com/blog-entry-256.html

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  4. ご主人にお誕生日おめでとうございます!

    Whoa! I certainly don't have much firsthand experience with handling a tanuki! In fact, I don't think I've ever seen one live. I'll let Amy give her two cents of background (which is worth about two cents more than mine), but Jerry and others can take a quick look at Wiki for the basic stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanuki. The first thing I always think about, when thinking about tanuki, is pottery. You can find ceramic tanukis all over Japan. One of the most famous kiln sites in all of Japan, Shigaraki (which is apparently now part of Koka City in Shiga Prefecture), is even specifically known as a producer of tanuki statues. The current Wiki page for Shigaraki pottery has an image of the standard cute tanuki figure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigaraki_ware.

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  5. Aha! I knew there was a webpage somewhere with a ton of information, and this is it!

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  6. Awww!
    Did you see this?
    http://earthsky.org/biodiversity/ravens-gesture-to-each-other-with-their-beaks

    Dom

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  7. how did he even manage to bring it home? I guess i don't actually know much wildlife info on tanukis, like are they dangerous like raccoons?

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  8. Oh my goodness, Amy! I hope you can find someone to take care of it!

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  9. Tanuki??!!?! What?! I'm also wondering how on earth Koshi managed to carry it home.... Aren't they heavy... And bitey? Lol! It's funny that I looked up pictures of real tanukis a couple days ago--must be the sister esp working again! :-) I had only ever seen the pottery ones, and didn't realize until I looked them up that they were related to foxes, not raccoons.
    Do keep us posted-- ganbare, tanukichan!

    --ann

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  10. Your son is soooooo lucky. I don't know how many times I wished as a kid to just see one. You are going to have some epic good luck coming your way lol. Just be careful from what iv heard they can be very mean equivalent to a opossum.

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  11. What's happening?!

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  12. Oh come on Amy... don't let us hanging here!

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  13. Girl...do you know how freakin' long I have been looking for you? Finally I stumbled across your wedding invitation and found your last name! I googled you and found your blog. Nice to see you're still alive and kicking!!! Seriously, I hope all is well.
    Peace and joy to you and the fam!
    Rachel (aka. Rae from Indy)

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  14. Hi Amy, This is Sharlene from Yarniacs. :) Just checking in as I haven't seen you on Ravelry in over a month. We are all worried and hope to see on Rav soon!

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  15. Your very lucky, my Grandma lives in Kamishirane and I've only seen them once in my life. 3 little babies hanging around a bicycle parking, just staring. Better hope he/she doesn't transform on you, but I think its been scientifically proven (by Miyazaki) that they have trouble transforming when their tired or really weak.

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