Wildlife: Heidi Chronicles 2012 - The Little Guys & Gals, 2 by DreamOfSpring

DreamOfSpring wrote:
These next pics are from 2 nights ago, one of the nights after Heidi went MIA. None of the pics are Wow types, but they do show the raccoons in 'action'. The patio is all yucky again. Not my work. I haven't been out there - too hot. The landscaper had cleaned it up, removed all debris, arranged things, swept/blown it clean, etc, but the raccoons need something to do while they wait, especially the kits. In case I haven't mentioned this lately, raccoons are like that friend who constantly plays with everything on your desk or in your home while talking, the friend you constantly have to take valuable items from, because they mindlessly fidget with them while talking - and end up breaking things w/o meaning to. Raccoons constantly fidget with things, twisting them one way and then another. Only the older ones like Heidi are capable of sitting still for any length of time.

There isn't anything very important out there for them to hurt. They broke a couple of clay saucers, apparently knocking them off the shelf. The bright blue debris on the patio and the wire handle are parts of a plastic bucket I bought a few years back. The heat/sun out there is highly destructive, esp to plastics. In just a few short years, the bucket had become ultra fragile (no longer useful), almost like an egg shell. Thus the raccoons busied themselves crushing it into small pieces - but, again, it was totally useless and should have been tossed already - before they made a mess out of it. Just wanted to explain the mess out there. It has been raining daily for weeks now, so it's very soggy here. All the water, wet dirt, and the green fungus/moss that grows on everything due to the rain and high humidity all make the mess look even worse.

The heat is dreadful now, so I'm not going out there for anything until September - that includes cleaning up the patio. It's so hot out now that it's even hot, sultry, humid, and yucky late at night when you would normally expect it to be cooler or at least neutral.

ABOUT THE PHOTO: The 1st pic shows an adult (the mom) far left and 2 kits, one far right and one at center. This was taken after I gave them cookie bits. The kit far right has gone off there to eat his cookie w/o the others trying to take it - which is smart because his mom is the one that takes cookies from babies. The middle kit, having finished her cookie, is watching the other. The adult raccoon, the mom, is sneaking around trying to find cookie pieces to steal from her babies. The 2nd pic is a crop of the 1st just to let you see more detail.