Heidi Chronicles: Episode #9064 - ish

Debbie,

Nope (to Heidi giving a cookie away). LOL.

That melon we had last night was really, really awesome. Perfection. Heidi had been absent for 2 days, and was probably a little hungry. It was a huge melon half. Even the cashier commented on the size of the thing. Still heidi was not at all eager to share. I had used a fork to break off large pieces of melon all around the sides to make it easier to eat. Heidi kept pushing the youngster away. The yearling was just sitting about a foot away and very now and then when the timing looked right the yearling would reach in, grab a hunk, and run with it. When she finished it, she would return to sit and bide her time...then grab another and so on.

After eating a bunch of the chunks I had cut, heidi then began her usual watermelon ritual, sitting there reaching in with two cupped hands to scoop up the liquid, raise it to her mouth, drink it, lick her hands, then repeat. She will absolutely spend 2 hours doing this, trying to 'drink' a large melon two handfuls at a time. Nothing else will keep her in the yard as long as a good, sweet melon half with lots of juice in it.

Cheryl, it really is good that she does that with the melon. They have so much vitamins a nursing mother needs, and well, she sure does enjoy herself!

I am excited to be thinking of those babies coming to the buffet. But it sounds like Dennis and her crew are going to be a handful. I am surprised "Grandma Heidi didn't get it on the "get over there and take care of your babies!"

Probably have to start taking the camera out more and more with the prospect of little faces peering at you!

How is your leg doing? Has Fraidy been around of late?

Lol.. heidi dunkign cookies. She must REALLY love melon. I wonder how many tiem s a nnight sh ehas to get up and us et he wood facilities though.

dennis isn't get that mammallary problem type thign is she posibly. Forget what it calle d when they swell so big and have to take animal to doc cuz of it?

Do you think if Dennis trie s to bring her kit s in before Heidi brings hers , heidi wil let them come and eat or will Heidi demand her s get priorty first.

You have to be excited and dismaye d too ( more cookies to buy) that the babie s are near. The anitcipation woudl have me on pins and needles.

When the babies arrive on the scene I expect the grown ups to understand that the candy and cookies are for the 'children' - and, yes, that works just as well [or not] with raccoons as it does with humans.

I need to clean out the pool and round up the toys. I have a bunch of more of those practice golf balls that were so popular & the squishy cloth balls that always get stolen as soon as they go in the pool. I saw one of those golf balls up near the house the other day, so I gather someone has been playing. A few days ago while rummaging about in my bag for fallen treats, I found 3 cat toy balls that I had bought ages ago. I tossed one in the pool, and youngster immediately grabbed it and ran away with it. Another youngster came up to me like they do for food, I held the little ball out to her. She sat up, reached up with both hands to take it gently from my hands, and took it over into the brush area. I threw the 3rd ball into the pool where it stayed for a while but was gone before morning.

I've seen some of the yearlings playing btw and meant to tell you about it but kept forgetting. remind me and I'll tell you later (after work).

Ok, I needed my fix and couldnt wait any longer to check out Heidi and the gang; so I asked my granbaby "Trinitie" If Nana could please get on the puter for a min an she said" go ahead Nana I let chew" :)

I thought that was cute with Heidi and the cookie

Ok, Trinitie has just let me know that my time is up and that we need to go for a walk so I must go.

Glad I got to catch up on the tread I will be back in a couple of days [ if Im allowed] :)

maybe babies be here then :)

It seems Heidi dunking the cookie was the clear winner.

So look what I got - when I told her how much you enjoyed her story, Heidi posed for a pic for all of you.

And another. Here she also wanted to demonstrate how she can dunk a cookie while simultaneously checking over her shoulder to fuss at the kids.

And no photo albums would be complete without that adorable little yearling who 'shares' heidi's melon. Right?

Now this is a little OT, but the other night I decided to take a pic to show you my 'bite'. Unfortunately, it's on my right hand, and my camera is designed in such a manner as to be virtually impossible to operate with the left hand. You can't hold it in the left hand and reach the button without having your hand over the sensors or lens or something.

Below is a very lousy pic of my hand. Can't see the bite? Well, that's the point. That's why I took the pic in the 1st place. I wanted to clear up any concerns about the severity of the bite. Yes, it has been about a week since the bite occurred, but a really nasty bite, the kind a raccoon is capable of, would still be apparent in the photo. Still can't find the bite? Hint: it's not that long curvy line. That's my life line. It's on the heal of my hand between that line and my thumb. Still can't see it? Well, actually neither can I, even in real life. When I decided to take the pic, I found that the bite had so faded as to be, well, gone.

Heidi demonstrating the busy life of a monarch and how she must sometimes stop in the middle of her meal to scrutinize the activities of the minions around her.

Heidi enjoying her melon. Note her hands pulled up to her mouth to drink the juice.

Timba enjoying a cookie - very, very much.

Heidi takes a break from her melon to eat some of her cat food.

One of the yearlings eats a cookie

Heidi eating cat food.

Heidi's yearling

Timba saying, "If I stand like Jerry, can I get a cookie?"

(I think we can all see that Timba is a mommie BTW.)

That is reassuring. I was hoping you wouldn't have any lingering infection or problems with it!

I love, love, love the pictures of Heidi dunking her cookies! I'll have to show that to my kids tomorrow. Seems they will eat anything if they can dip it in something first, and looks like Heidi is just an overgrown kid in that regard. How funny.

I think Starlight was talking about mastitis, an infection of the milk glands. I sure hope Dennis isn't developing that. I had it, and it is absolutely miserable! I hope she is continuing to nurse those babies as much as possible, as that is the best thing she could do to relieve the pain of it, even if that seems counter-intuitive. I know I just didn't want anyone to touch mine! LOL I know, I know, too much information. . .

Echo, looking a little pigeon toed here, says, "Hey, don't forget me, I was copying Jerry long before these other guys caught on. "

Hi Angie,

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the pics. I was ecstatic when Heidi held that pose long enough for me to get no one but 2 pics. Last night when I reached forward to hand her a cookie and then watched her dunk it in th melon juice, I really thought that was cute. We think it's funny now, but fast forward a few years and Starbucks will be running melon bars where we stop off to buy a melon shot and a fresh baked cookie to dunk. : )

I don't think Dennis has it quite that bad. I think she's just one step shy of infection. Looks like she has the swelling and discomfort though. Your explanation goes a long way towards explaining why she might feel like nipping anyone who touched her while she was licking her 'wounds', huh?

I've noticed that the females normally get all swollen and such when they start to wean the kits. The milk is still flowing and no one is drinking. The other females take it all in stride so that you would never even know they had a problem unless you happened to catch it in a photo, which I have. Dennis, on the other hand, just doesn't seem to have the best coping skills yet. She was never a particularly patient soul.

As for my hand, I decided to take the picture because I was beginning to get the impression that some people might think the 'bite' was more than it really was. It was truly just two dots which barely broke the outer skin but did not even bleed. The dots were literally less prominent than mosquito bites. It's clear to me that Dennis was not trying to hurt me. She probably didn't even mean to break the skin at all. Remember she is accustomed to dealing with tougher raccoon hide with fur and such. They give each other 'pinch' bites, no blood, no teeth marks, just a warning, a means of communicating to say "stop it, I don't like that." It's not meant to wound the offender, just to make a point to "leave me alone".

Love the attitude Echo shows in that photo. They are just so darned cute! I love the whole series of pictures, in fact. I missed that you'd posted several more while I was writing my post! I sure hope you do write a book about all this. I think it would rank right up with the one about the library cat (can't recall the title, but it was on bestseller lists for a long, long time!)

Thank you very much, Angie!

I'm determined to write that book and do everything in my power to convince someone to publish it.

More pics to come.

Here's Timba. Heidi had left by this time. Everyone wanted some of that melon. Timba just sneaked up and grabbed the melon. You can see from her body language that she really isn't planning on letting go until she gets a serving or two.

Timba. "Can I get another cookie, please?"

Husky. This, again, was after Heidi had left for the night.

Something tells me that watermelon has the same affect on the raccoons as the drink "sex on the beach" has to us humans! LOL What a look on those faces.

The colors are so vibrant also Cheryl, I can taste that sweetness myself.

Glad the hand is well. You know we all just worry about you.

Today is a hard day (1 yr. anniv. of Mom) and you have succeeded in putting a big smile on my face! Thank you

Debbie

Hi Debbie,

Oh, I know how difficult that 1st anniv can be. (((Big, big hug))) Glad the raccoons and I could help to bring you a smile today.

I really do appreciate that you worry about me. I appreciate that your concern for my safety is greater than your desire to hear more of the story - that is not always the case on internet threads. Some of your concerns were on target, too. Still, I had read a few posts in which people expressed concerns of a nature that seemed to indicate they thought the raccoons might be about to rip me limb from limb. Concerns over rabies are real. Based on the circumstances, concerns that they may injure me seriously probably aren't. They are all so overly gentle in their dealings with me, and even in the case of Dennis the 'nips' are barely there. I just thought I should show how bad the bite wasn't in order to calm the fears of those who may, lacking a view of the actual bite, have imagined something more serious.

In truth, Widget gave me a worse nip when playing as a puppy - and he didn't mean it either. His bite while playing a little too hard actually drew blood and left teeth prints for a few weeks.

I wish that all of you could see how gently the raccoons, Heidi, and, yes, Dennis included, take treats from my hand. The gentleness is like that of a small child. Sometimes a yearling will lunge viciously at the raccoon next to her, nipping the offender for getting too close, and then, the offender driven away for the moment, will turn back to me and reach up with childlike delicacy to clasp the cookie every so sweetly from hand, casting an appreciative look my way and attempting to take the cookie only after I let go. By this I mean that a raccoon's hands will ever so gently make contact with the cookie, but that raccoon will make no attempt to actually take the cookie and leave with it until I then let go of it. Thus the act of handing food to them is a 3 step process consisting of (1) raccoon touches cookie gently with hands and (2) humans releases hold on cookie followed by (3) raccoon now takes ownership of cookie. There is never a tug or pull on the cookie while I am still holding it. I find this most noteworthy.

The only exception to the above is when too many raccoons are up near me trying to get the same cookie. I have learned from experience that this is not the time to hand out treats. I only hand out treats when the raccoons behave themselves coming up one at a time for a cookie like well behaved children - and they do just that most of the time. If I hold a cookie out to a raccoon while others are rushing in for that same cookie, the raccoon, under pressure from the others, will snatch it and run. They still don't hurt me, but at such times I can usually feel the claws graze my skin ever so passively (just because they are there, not because the raccoon intends to do this). Time constraints in trying to get that cookie before the next guy do not allow for such social niceties as being gentle or waiting for the [slow] human to let go. As I prefer the gentle method, I've learned not to pass out treats when they huddle around me in groups - and raccoons being as smart as they are, this helps to reinforce the behavior of approaching the human one at a time for treats.

Debbie,

The photos with the melon are so bright and clear because as I've mentioned Heidi is now eating directly in front of me. The melon is less than a foot from me, so close that the shadow of the camera appears in some of the photos before editing. Heidi is so close these days that I can bend down and hand her a cookie over the melon - now that's close.

As a result, the flash is able to do a much better job of bathing the otherwise dark scene in light which brings out the detail and colors. With most of the photos, because the raccoons are farther away, I have to crop and expand a tiny spot (the raccoon) out of the much large picture and then try to adjust the lighting with software because comparatively little of the flash made it over to the subject. With Heidi and anyone who comes to the melon, I only have to trim a smidgen around the edge of the pic and then reduce it down to less than 1M before posting. Thanks for the compliment.

I, too, have noticed that look of total bliss on the faces of the raccoons as they eat the watermelon. The others have to cram the melon down as fast as they can before another raccoon challenges them and takes the melon away, but Heidi will absolutely sit there for 2 or more hours just sipping juice and savoring the moment. I have sat with her for 2hrs on weekends before while she lingered over her melon, and have sometimes had to finally excuse myself and leave her out there still sipping away after 2hrs. I honestly think she enjoys the thing so much she just wants to savor it as long as she can - it's like she is at a spa or something when she sits down to that melon.

I think watermelon must be the raccoon equivalent of chocolate. Last summer there was a medical report indicating that watermelon has effects similar to a low dose of Viagra in that it causes an increase in blood flow to certain areas of the body. I feed them the remains of 1/2 melon a day about 4 to 5 days a week, so I have some very happy raccoons...

Timba again

Oh, and considering how close that melon is to my feet, you can see how much they love it by the way they are all willing to get so close to eat it.

The Steal!

After Timba ate a bit of melon, another raccoon showed up to execute the Steal. Here you see the raccoon on the left sitting down near the target and beginning to back up...

Here we see the scene after the Steal is complete. The 'new' raccoon has taken over the melon and is enjoying the wonderful, intoxicating liquid. The raccoon on the right is not interested in the melon at all. That's Fraidy. She's just there to eat the kibble Heidi left behind. The goings on concerning the melon are of no interest to her. However, if you look beyond Fraidy you will see yet another raccoon sitting down with her back to us. That is Timba executing the Counter Steal. As soon as she was ejected from her position at the helm, she started working on her own Steal to get the melon back.

Same scene, same characters a minute or so later. Notice how much progress Timba has made now, how much close she is. There is less melon left now, so they have to work harder to get it out of the rind. I'm not sure if the one with the melon is trying to cover the thing because of Timba's advances or just trying to hold it down to scrape the melon off the rind. Notice also how the one executing the Steal appears to be just sitting around, duhn, duh, duh, looking around, minding his own business and just enjoying the night air.

Also note how much darker and less clear Timba is than the other 2. Just that small distance back from the camera makes a huge difference in the amount of light that reaches her.

oops. camera man panned the area for other shots. here is Echo. She was standing when I pressed the button but got down at the last second before the shutter closed. As you can see, she's a small thing and not so cute. The standing [upright] position becomes her.

I don't really know just whose youngster she is - except that she isn't one of Heidi's bunch. Heidi doesn't appear that fond of her as she fusses whenever Echo comes forward of an imaginary 'center' line that divides the buffet into a section by the fence and a section closer to me. Echo spends a lot of her time sneaking about in the brush area and standing upright to get my attention and get me to toss her a treat.

Her appearance is more like that of Cruella.

I think Timba aborted her Steal attempt. I believe this is the other young male, the one Heidi hates. Heidi had already left by this time.

After the male left he melon, another raccoon grabbed it and started moving it back away from me. By this time most of the raccoons present were the late shift group, many of whom are strangers to me.

Still moving backward

Big difference now between the melon at the beginning (when Heidi had it) and now.

Notice the shift from eating with hands/claws to scraping/scissoring with front teeth now that they are down to the rind. This is why the end result is so smooth.

One eating melon - dragged back a ways now while other eats remains of Heidi's food. These are the late shift gang members. I don't 'know' them. The regulars have left. Note that Fraidy has also abandoned her hold on Heidi's food supply. She doesn't stay out around this less civilized gang. She usually disappears as soon as the Husky appears on the scene since he is bad about taking her food.

Here is "I want some, too"

Same scene a moment later. Looking at me to see if I have treats.