Heidi Chronicles: Life With Baby

This is the ongoing story of Heidi and friends, raccoons who eat at my backyard buffet. Heidi's 09 kits have been showing up at the buffet more and more these days, and they are simply adorable.

prior thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1019427/
1st thread in series: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/603944/

Edited to add the following Disclaimer:

Caution: Don't try this at home. Professional drivers on closed circuit course.
Seriously though, while this is a true story, it is the culmination of 4yrs of effort making friends with the raccoons. Please don't read this and think that you can approach a wild raccoon in the manner described here without first investing time, lots of time, getting to know the raccoon. Moreover, contact with wild raccoons or any other wild animals is ill advised. Raccoons may carry rabies and/or raccoon roundworm both of which present serious health risks to humans. I have taken steps to mitigate the risk, including: getting rabies shots, being careful to avoid situations where I might be scratched or bitten, and wearing rubber gloves for protection against roundworm eggs when cleaning the pool.


Below: Reba on the pool's edge

This message was edited Aug 15, 2009 3:03 AM

To kick things off, below is an annotated story in pictures depicting Heidi (front right) working on effecting a non-violent takeover of the watermelon (from Freida on the back left)


It's important to work slowly and in a non-threatening manner while aligning ones body properly for the takeover

Nibble a bit of cat food so as to appear disinterested while continuing to calibrate and correct your alignment. (Doesn't look like anything is going on, right?)

Now, scoonch over gently but firmly using your neck and body to push the other guy out of the way.

Sometimes the other guy will resist. That's ok. Just hold your ground, have confidence in your alignment, and keep pushing.

Of course, in Heidi Land as in Life things don't always turn out as planned. Sometimes, the other guy may be dancing to the beat of that other drummer and may have different plans. Here, Heidi is seen eating cat food after Freida, seeing that she was about to loose the shoving match, grabbed the melon and ran. (What's worse, the stupid human was too busy taking these pictures and missed her cue to fetch the melon back - this despite all of the time and effort Heidi had put into training the human to perform the melon fetching trick. Some days just work out this way.)

Edited for clarity



This message was edited Aug 15, 2009 3:34 AM

Forgot to mention that the pics here and above are recent but not from tonight.
Here is Reba standing. Note the partial flower pot behind her showing that the picture is straight, she is crooked. They frequently seem to lean to that one side when standing.

Heidi picking up cat food. If you look very closely you can see that she has one piece of kibble in her hands.

Heidi eating cookie. Looks like I didn't do a very good job of wiping the 'humidity' off of the lens that night since all of the pics have that slightly blurry area in the middle

yearling eating cat food. there is that blur again.

before I wiped the effects of humidity off the lens. I just posted this pic in a gratuitous effort to show you what my glasses look like every morning when I get out of the car to walk to my office.

Heidi eating melon. I cropped this one less to allow you to see more of the gang.

ditto

closer on Heidi from above shot.

Doesn't she look sweet every bit as sweet as the melon?

Love the photos and the disclaimer. That last closeup of Heidi is priceless. Looks like she may be developing cataracts - some opacity in the center of her left eye. And looks like there's a tick on that left foot, kind of an odd place for one; suspect she'll groom that off in no time. The picture story is great, but shame on you for failing to follow your training (lol).

Thanks, Ruth!

What can I say? Human's are trainable, but as Heidi will surely tell you, it takes a lot of patience. lol
It's interesting how you look at things with the eye of someone accustomed to taking care of the needs of wild and homeless animals. I must admit I didn't even notice that [now] very obvious tick let alone the cloudy eye.

Alas, Heidi is getting old. The other day I went back and rewound the clock [again] to double check my facts regarding her estimated age. This time, in an effort to be very conservative in my estimate, I started the clock with our 1st close encounter at the bird feeder that sunny, Saturday morning so long ago, disregarding prior but more fleeting sightings. Matching that event with an informal lunch with friends [from work] in which I recounted the events of that day to ask for advice on dealing with 'that crazy raccoon', I was able to use my resume to date the event [with a very high degree of certainty] due to job and contract changes and resultant changes in co-workers, lunch friends, and even restaurants frequented.

That event would have occurred roughly 6yrs ago. Again, that's not the 1st time I saw her. It's the 1st close encounter we had and one in which I can be sure that was definitely Heidi. She was an adult at the time and appeared too large and too knowledgeable and self-confident to have been a yearling. This makes her 7yrs old at an absolute minimum (if she was a yearling when we met that day) and more likely 8 or older.

Even though Heidi is still master of her domain, she is definitely showing her age. In many of the photos, she looks quite old especially when compared with the others. I have to laugh at some of the pictures of her eating watermelon and sometimes cookies, because she actually looks younger in those pictures - like the experience somehow evokes the kit in her for the moment and does it so completely that the effect can actually be captured on 'film'.

That she might have cataracts would explain what I've noticed for some time when giving her treats. I was never quite sure the reason [until now], but Heidi often over or under reaches when trying to take treats from my hand. I had wondered at one time if raccoons were far sighted, but then I realized the others can take a very small item from my hand with great accuracy. Heidi has now learned to take a cookie from my hand as 'well' as the others, so she shows an ability to compensate just as we humans do. The other night when I offered her cookies with a glob of frosting on them, she again had difficulty grasping them, reaching, hesitating, then overreaching to grasp my wrists instead. As long as the [blurred] image before her was a cookie, she had learned to compensate and grasp it accurately. When the blob of strawberry frosting changed the image, she could no longer do so.

Good eye for details.

Any way you look at it, Heidi is at or beyond the normal life expectancy for a wild raccoon (which sources indicate to be 7-8yrs) and amazingly still having a good size litter each year, although it clearly took a toll on her this year as she looked very rough when she returned that one night.

Recently I was pondering the fact that Heidi appeared to take longer to bring the kits to the buffet this year and yet they don't appear larger/older as I had expected. Given that she didn't get very large this year as compared with prior years, I was wondering if the kits might have been born smaller and thus needed a little more time to get big enough to come to the buffet. Just a thought.

Your reasoning makes great sense as always, Cheryl; older animals typically begin to have smaller litters. Since this hasn't been true of Heidi, it would make sense that the kits would be smaller at birth, especially as she didn't seem huge during pregnancy. The over- or under-reaching for treats also makes sense if she's developing cataracts, but as always she's quick to learn to adapt to changed circumstances.

Yes, Heidi is clearly an older girl and is beginning to show her age in small ways. That said, she has much working in her favor, compared to raccoons in other environments: a reliable and nutritious food source, thanks to you; a relatively safe environment, with the wild area beyond your property somewhat protected by law; phenomenal instincts and very high intelligence for her species. With all that working for her, it's not surprising that she's been able not just to survive, but to thrive and rule her little society well beyond the "normal" lifespan for raccoons. You know I'm with you in spirit, hoping that Heidi can continue to defy the odds and reign supreme for quite some time to come. Losing HRH was tough, if inevitable eventually; losing Heidi is hard to contemplate.

Wonderful pics and description of "The Steal", and love the other pics as well. You can tell how much Heidi loves her watermelon.

Thanks, KyWoods!

Glad you enjoyed the pics. Thanks for reminding me about changing threads. Please don't hesitate to let me know any time I need to do so.

Just to keep our terminology straight, actually, that's the Shove pictured above. The Shove is where they use their bodies to try to push the other out of the way. Often the other will push back and you get a scene that reminds me of two small children both trying to sit in the same chair, each trying to use their bodies to push the other off the chair. Although these 2 didn't get to that point because Freida grabbed that melon and ran, the really down in the dirt, shoving matches can be adorable to watch [and like the kids mentioned, there is never any violence to this move].

The Steal, on the other hand, is characterized by a raccoon who sits down with his/her back to the desired food item and then slowly scoots back towards the food while still sitting on his butt. Sometimes, upon seeing this, the current owner of the food will just give up and leave. If not, when the raccoon executing The Steal gets to where his back is almost up against the food, he will quickly pivot around onto his feet so that he is standing in front of the food. By this time the other raccoon will almost always leave. Not sure why since there is no violence. There isn't even physical contact as in the Shove. I guess it's just customary to do so.

I can see the confusion with the terms since both the Shove and the Steal ultimately result in the same result, stealing food. I noticed, described, and named the Steal 1st before I became aware of the existence of the Shove; otherwise, I might have chosen a different name for that one.

It may seem like mere semantics especially as these are essentially made up terms, but if I can keep the definitions straight, then I can more easily refer to them by name in future stories w/o needing to go through the full, laborious description each time. So that's why I'm clarifying this.

Heidi does love watermelon. Many of the others do also. From their reaction, it appears to be like raccoon crack or something - except that's actually good for them. Unfortunately, I can only carry so much watermelon in one trip especially with all of the other stuff. Heidi tries to be nice and share the melon with Freida, Mishka, and sometimes Reba, but as you can see if often backfires.

LOL, "raccoon crack". Interesting to know they have specific moves for food-stealing. Clever little rascals!
As we speak, there are three tiny kits hanging onto one of our black oil sunflower feeders. So cute!

Tonight I took out 1/2 of a watermelon, the entire 1/2 as it was not a good watermelon but one that had cracked open inside and now had the texture of foam rubber and styrofoam. As soon as I put it down and before I could even put my things down and get out my spray bottle, Freida began trying to get the melon. The 1st time I managed to shoo her away, but then as I frantically searched for my spray bottle in my tote in the dark, she rushed in, grabbed the melon again, and ran off with it once again trying to take it around the pool. I took off after her and retrieved the melon. This time the site of me stomping through the buffet area didn't bother anyone. When I returned with the melon, Heidi was eating her cat food and even Bast was still eating beside my seat. They learn fast. I thought it was pretty smart of Freida to go after the melon before I had time to put my things away and get out my 'weapon'. I don't think that was an accident at all.

This time, when I returned with the melon I didn't give it back to Heidi right away but sat it down between my feet while I looked for my water bottle. I wasn't going to give Freida another chance to run off with it. Before I could find the bottle, Heidi, who eats just a foot away anyhow, walked over to the melon sheltered between my legs to eat. We have just come so far she and I that she would be totally at ease coming up to eat food that was sheltered between my feet and would not even be concerned by the sights and sounds of me rustling through the tote bag over her head.

As I've mentioned before, the raccoon know a good watermelon from a bad one and all the shades in between as well as we do. Although they all ate some of it and Mishka was still working on it when I left, from the quantities each ate to the enthusiasm or lack thereof with which they did so, I could see that it was not there idea of an awesome melon either. This is an interesting observation to me because I grew up thinking, in part due to what I was taught, that animals somehow lacked our more refined taste buds and ability to discern food quality in this manner. Yet another misguided idea about animals bites the dust.

Tonight there were 2 adorable kits out there. I just assumed they were Heidi's but later realized they were actually Freida's kits. Now I'm wondering if Heidi really has 4 after all or if the 2 extra kits I saw near hers that one night were actually Freida's. In retrospect that would seem to make more sense. Both sets of kits look a lot alike except that Freida's are a little smaller. Heidi really didn't get very big this year, and I'm still challenged to imagine her carrying 4 kits in there.

Both of Freida's kits came near me, one to drink watermelon juice and the other for cookies. I had tossed the them everything from a watermelon chunk to cookie pieces. Despite being some distance away from me, they had no difficulty understanding where the food was coming from. When one ran out of cookie pieces, he came all the way across the buffet to arrive a little distance from my side where he approached cautiously in search of more cookies. I held out a cookie piece to him. He didn't take the cookie, but neither did he run away. He sniffed it and waited. I dropped it in front of him and he picked it up to eat. The kit came back several time for more.

I 1st learned the kits actually belonged to Freida when I spritzed her so they could eat some melon and then watched as she walked away trailing the kits behind her. Oops. One kit sniffed her face like "Eeeew! Mommy, you smell funny!" (stupid human tricks again)

Oh, that last bit was priceless with Freida's kit reacting to the smell of vinegar spray on mama; and that's actually a pretty smart human trick, though undoubtedly less so from their point of view. I agree that it makes much more sense for Heidi to have just two kits, with the other two being Freida's; make quite a few things clear in context.

Animals excel us many times over in their senses of sight, hearing, and smell - so why not taste, of which smell is a big component? The fact that they'll eat out of dumpsters says more to me about their will to survive than their discriminatory taste buds. And note, in this context, that though they didn't find the melon awesome, they still ate every bit.

Interesting that Freida's kits are also quite trusting of you, despite your frequent stinky vinegar sprays to keep her off Heidi's melon. Likewise the fact that no one was scared or intimidated this time by your stupid human trick of retrieving the melon. There's clearly a whole new level of acceptance going on, not at all limited to Heidi - though it may be trickling down from her. I'd love to overhear those meetings in the forest, wouldn't you?

LOL, love the mental image of Freida's kit grimacing at Mom's yucky smell!
Do you think it might keep them from stealing watermelon from each other if you put out a few chunks in a bowl somewhere, in addition to the melon itself? Nah, there would just be double the stealing going on, huh...

KyWoods,

I'm sure it would help if I put extra chunks of melon out so everyone can have some, but that isn't as easy as it sounds. Most of the time I only have the one 1/2 available at a time, and I hate to cut it up because Heidi, and the others for that matter, really loves to drink the juice that collects in the bottom. Heidi doesn't care much for cut up chunks of melon. Even when I have more melon to bring out as I did last night, it is difficult enough to carry all of the things I already have to carry plus 1/2 of a watermelon. I can't carry 2 melon halves along with the bucket of food and the tote with flashlight, spray bottle, insect spray, boxes of cookies, etc.

I'm not just going to the patio but all the way to the back of the yard - in the dark, while trying to avoid snakes and pot holes dug by well meaning raccoons. (apparently they had grub digging lessons the other night) A second trip to carry out extra melon is just not feasible for a number of reasons including: (1) I'll have to take everything back with me and carry it all out again to keep them from stealing things, (2) someone is likely to steel Bast's food while I'm gone and possibly cause her to leave, (3) someone is sure to steal Heidi's melon while I'm gone and carry it into the weeded area, (4) going and coming may cause the kits to get scared and leave or hide.

The watermelon issue is a difficult one. Everybody out there wants watermelon and I only have the one. I let Freida steal it occasionally just to be fair. Heidi lets Mishka eat with her. Sometimes she lets Freida eat some but not often probably because Freida has the nasty habit of stealing the melon. Reba and the others often get to eat from what is left when Heidi leaves. Occasionally, Heidi lets Reba eat some while she is eating her cat food. A few times I cut extra melon/rind up in sections and put it in a zip lock bag to take out for the others. The cost of all those zip lock bags, plus the mess in the kitchen from cutting it up, the mess in the bottom of my tote bag, and the extreme weight of carrying all that melon with all the other stuff made me shy away from doing it again.

I've thought about putting one melon out in day light and taking the other 1/2 with me later (when I have 2), but as I've tried this before with other things, I know that it causes an unexpected problem. When the raccoons arrive, they can tell, from smell and such, that I have been back there recently. They see the item(s) I left and think they missed dinner, so they leave. Later, when I'm ready to go out to feed them, no one is there. I don't like to leave food back there when the raccoons aren't there for fear of attracting rats and mice from the forest.

Problems, problems, problems. It is a lot like dealing with a small daycare center full of toddlers - only in the backyard and at night - and these toddlers can climb especially well. It's funny really when you think about it. I can't so much as leave my bug spray or my flashlight between runs because the little demons will carry anything and everything off to the weeds while I'm gone. I'm not kidding. One night they carried off a can of bug spray. I found it in the weeds one day. I used to leave my little bug candle lantern out there to lighten my load - until they took it apart for me. Another night I forgot my vinegar spray. You would think they would leave that nasty stuff alone. Right? Nope, I had to walk all around the area to find it. They are thieves, I tell you. Thieves. One afternoon when I was doing yard work, I left my shirt out there. I never found it again. I guess maybe it is lining somebody's nest.

LOL Just yesterday my Dad found a large cotter pin that we used to secure the sunflower seed chest on the front porch. He found it about 50 yards away, down the hill, on the driveway as he was preparing to spread concrete.

He had forgotten to fasten the chest about a month ago, laying the pin down next to it, and the raccoons evidently thought it was fascinating. Luckily, we had another pin. This is for a metal box that he bolted to the porch so they wouldn't steal that, too.
We used to have a small metal trash can with a lock-on lid, but they figured out how to roll it down the hill to dislodge the lid. They are smart little boogers!

KyWoods,

Yes, that's for sure!

They are also quite single-minded and relentless in pursuit of a goal. One of the last nights I used water to try to hold the raccoons back from Bast, says it all. This was back when Bast was still very, very sick. She was sitting about 1/2 way between me and the tractor scoot, and was slowly nibbling and picking at her food, spending much of her time watching fearfully for attackers. As it got later, they got hungrier and braver. In those days it took Bast forever to eat her meal. Heidi had left already. Bast had the only food left out there and the others were beginning to circle her like a pack of insistent vultures.

Finally, fearful that an attack was eminent, Bast got up and left. I could tell that she wasn't through/full but had just given in to the relentless pursuit of all of the raccoons circling her. This made me very angry. (Yes, I'm human, and I have these emotions sometimes.) Angry that they had run Bast off when she seemed just one missed meal away from death and determined not to let them be rewarded for this, I stubbornly refused to let them have her food.

I wish you could have seen that. It was simply unbelievable. Each time Freida came out of the weeds toward the food, I would spray her in the face non-stop (with pure water), but she would just squint and keep on coming. Angry and determined, I would stand up and walk towards her stomping my feet like an kid having a tantrum (can you just see this?) Freida would turn and disappear back into the weeds only to reappear 2 seconds later when I sat back down on my seat. Once again, she would come walking towards the food which was right beside me. Once again, I would spray her from the time she came out of the weeds until, seeing that she was about to get the food, I would get up again and chase her back stomping my feet all the way. And the instant I would sit back down, here she came once more...

It was so insane, like the movie Ground Hog Day, we kept repeating the exact same scenario over and over and over and over, and still every time I sat back down I would see Freida step out of the weeds once more like a video snippet stuck on auto-replay. And each time the look on her face was as if she were stepping out for the very 1st time. I learned something very important about raccoons that night, something that goes a very long ways toward explaining the utter futility of trying to keep them out of yards and away from birdseed - unless you have a sturdy metal trunk bolted to the floor, and it had better be a sturdy floor, too, and you should probably check the hinges and lock periodically even if they are metal.

Blinded by the combination of my initial anger and my increasing frustration at her unwillingness to submit to my [superior, human] will, I became increasingly determined to win this ridiculous battle of wills. Yes, sometimes even I can be a little petty. I guess we must have repeated the above cycle 10-15 times when, determined not to loose, I ratcheted things up a notch by moving my seat on top of the food. (pleading temporary insanity, your honor). Ha! I had her now!

With the clockwork accuracy of those tiny figures that come out of a door at the top of some clocks, as soon as I sat down on the seat [which was now on top of the food], Freida stepped out of the weeds once more with that same "friendly, nothing ever happened" look on her face and started toward me - even though I was not sitting about a foot from the weeds. By this time I was started to feel a little intimidated. It was after all, black dark out there and now I was sitting eerily close to the scary weeded area, and the crazy raccoon (as if she were the only one acting crazy at the time) just kept coming at me.

I stood up and stomped my feet being to close to the weeds to actually chase her. Freida turned on cue and stepped quietly back into the weeds only to turn right back around and step back out towards me the instant I sat back down...

Finally, tired of this game and seeing that unless I planned to spend the night in the backyard I was clearly NOT going to win this one, I stood up for the last time and walked toward the house, and Freida stepped out, pushed the rolling seat out of her way, and ate the food.

It was unbelievable to me how she just kept coming out of the weeds over and over and over. I think if i had stayed to see it through, i would still be sitting on that seat and Freida would still be coming out of the weeds. The folks from Guiness Book would be here watching by now. She was like the original Ghandi, unflappable, non-violent resistance. And she won!

LOL, boy, she must've been reeeeeally hungry!

ROTF, KyWoods,

If only I had a webcam that night! It was something to see. I don't which of us was the most ridiculous - me, I think. She probably was hungry since that was when she was nursing her kits. Back then Freida was a bottomless pit as all of the nursing raccoons are. Even Heidi was taking pity on her back then and letting Freida share Heidi's cat food, but it was never, ever enough.

Raccoons demonstrate what we could do if we didn't have TVs, cell phones, ipods, computers, the internet, etc, etc or even old fashioned board games and books to entertain us. Freida, after all, had nothing else to do all night except keep coming after that food she wanted so badly - and it worked. She won...because I do have books, TV, a cell phone, an ipod, a laptop, and A JOB!

But, one thing I can tell you with certainty is that raccoons are hilarious creatures. It is impossible to spend any amount of time around them without seeing this. They are brilliant, endlessly curious (heck, they are probably working on a multiverse theory even as we talk), stubborn, relentless, and virtually impossible to circumvent. When they have it in their little heads to do something, it is almost a waste of time to try to stop them.

Loved the tales of the purloined bug spray and cotter pin; and the story of Freida's relentless pursuit of the kibble was just too funny. Given how weak Bast was at the time, I would've been right there with you, stomping and spraying, but knowing we were doomed to failure.

You're right, it is virtually impossible to deter them when they're determined to have something. I used to try ad nauseum to convince citizens of this when working in animal control, usually with no success. People just seem determined that since we are the bigger, "smarter", dominant species, we should be able to outsmart raccoons. Sorry, just not likely to happen. One guy would call every single summer because raccoons had once again taken the very expensive koi in his pond. Every year, I'd patiently tell him that the raccoons are simply doing what comes naturally, making use of a very accessible food source, and that they would continue to do so every time he restocked the koi unless he gave the fish some way to hide - like sinking a PVC pipe to sit laterally on the bottom of the pond. That would look ugly, he'd say; no, it would get covered with mud and/or algae and be virtually invisible in no time. Why couldn't I just trap the (expletives deleted) raccoons? Well, we didn't trap and relocate healthy wildlife, and besides, if he was basically providing a raccoon cafeteria, others would just move in once the originals were removed. If I didn't help him, he'd shoot the raccoons; it's illegal to discharge a gun in city limits, and the police have no sense of humor about it. It got so he'd start cursing the minute I showed up, since we both knew exactly how the conversation was going to go. Good grief! He could've solved the problem with a $5. investment at the hardware store, instead of constantly replacing a fortune in koi - but that would have been admitting defeat. Don't know what happened with his fish after I left animal control, but I do know the raccoons in his neighborhood were very well and very expensively fed.

LOL Can you imagine having such a dipstick for a neighbor? Sheesh....

KyWoods,

Many of us probably do!

Last night both of Freida's kits came up to me and took cookie pieces from my hand. They came at different times by themselves and without being called or otherwise prompted. One little one was eating watermelon at Heidi's spot (Heidi wasn't there. She didn't show up until late in the meal). Anyhow, the little tyke just walked right up to me and sniffed my bag, so I reached in, pulled out a cookie, broke it in 1/2 and held a piece out to the kit who sniffed it, hesitated for a minute, and then took in in her mouth and went back over to her spot by the watermelon (about a ft away) to eat it.

She had difficulty figuring out how to hold the cookie. LOL. I guess they have to learn like any baby. She tried to hold it between her wrists instead of her hands/fingers. That wasn't working so well. She stood up higher and higher trying to hold the cookie between her wrists and get it to her mouth. Eventually, she toppled over backward in the tall grass. That didn't seem to bother her though, as she lay there in the typical kitten position still trying to figure out the cookie thing. Too cute. And OMG, watching her try to open a peanut was even more amusing. She was totally clueless as to how to do it, but kept at it with the same raccoon resolve as Freida had displayed in the prior story - same genes. This involved sitting up and trying to bite the thing, lying down, rolling over, you name it all with the peanut in her mouth still trying to figure out the key to get it to open. I ended up shelling peanuts for her and tossing the nuts at her feet. After a while I started partially opening the shell and tossing that to her to help her learn.

Later the other one came up on the other side of me. When I offered her a cookie 1/2, she reached out and took it with her hands. She took it back under the table a few feet away to eat it. It took her forever to eat 1/2 cookie but she did show more skill than her sister in holding it. When she finished, she returned for another and another...

A few nights ago I took some of the squishy balls out there. I put one in the pool and tossed one over where the kits were. I didn't see the kits play with them while I was out there. I did see several of the yearlings play with them, each for a few minutes. The next day both balls were gone.

Took awhile to catch up as I have been gone for a couple weeks(family medical emergency). I really enjoy the ongoing story of all the antics and love the pictures. Of course you already know that! I have Cheryl,Heidi and the gang withdrawal while away but had fun relating your story to my sister. She got a kick out of it and told me some of her raccoon stories. We saw on the side of the road one afternoon,on one of our daily trips to see her husband,5 kits. They were so small and clearly looking for momma. I hope they make it but they were just so tiny. This is in the hills of MO,in the Ozarks. There were so many on the road that didn't make it across I felt like crying.

Judy

I gues s somewhere I missed th ejump aways back. Just been sitting here th epast few hour s catching up and laughing and snickering and enjoying the stories and all the pics.

It so amazing that after all thes e years kits coming to ya right from the start. Such wild creatures, so trusting in you this one human. Always amazing.

You Are the orginal Racoon whisper for sure. : )

Good to see you, starlight!

Hi starlight,

Agree with Kywoods. It is very nice to see you. I was just about to ask if anyone had seen you and if you were ok.

As for the kits being trusting, you just won't believe what happened tonight. (News at 11 - 36)

LOL : ) Get ya some rest . We can wait. Barely. heheheheh : )

Ruth,

Oh, well. I liked the idea of Heidi only having 2 kits, too. Still can't imagine how she squeezed 4 in there, esp 4 healthy ones, but the very next night while I was feeding Freida's 2, Heidi showed up with her 4, so now it is official. Heidi has 4. I swear I think she adopted a couple of them. (kidding, of course)

Your explanation regarding raccoon senses esp taste and smell makes a lot of sense (no pun intended). The problem with that particular melon was texture not taste. The flavor was reasonably sweet but the texture was horrible. One bite and I knew I could not eat it. Although the raccoons did eat the melon (eventually), it was clear that they were not at all impressed with the texture either. It wasn't dense and crisp like a good melon but sort of fluffy with a texture somewhere between meringue and styrofoam.

You are right though, despite the fact that these raccoons are well fed, they still eat everything that I put out there. They even ate the spoiled (as in soured due to a small cut in the rind) melon I put out that one time. But with both 1/2s of this melon I could tell a big difference in their enthusiasm and the amount each ate. If I put a good melon out there, Heidi will eat almost all of it - with a little help from Mishka. With the 'foamy' melon, both nights Heidi ate a little from the center and left the rest. One at a time each of the others stumbled upon the remains with a look of "I can't believe my good luck tonight". Then each would eat a little and walk away. Both nights when I left there was still 1-2in of red left on the melon and most of the raccoons had left. That NEVER happens. Normally, anything Heidi leaves is quickly and jealously scarfed down by the next raccoon in line. Then several others will eat into the white area as though there were still good melon left. (That said, even the bad melons were gone by morning. So either the raccoon eventually finished them off, or the opossums were thrilled to find that it was finally their lucky day.)

I have the cutest picture in my head of the weekly raccoon status meeting, the gang sitting around in a circle in a large clearing in the forest, some sitting on low tree branches and crotches the others sitting on the ground, Heidi at the helm, all discussing the important events and news of the prior week.

LOL at the story of the guy who couldn't put the pvc pipe in his koi pond. I especially like the fact that his folly was the raccoons' benefit as they enjoyed many a good meal because of his silly pride. I'm wondering though, would the raccoons not be able to lift the pvc pipe. I'm just thinking of my very determined and destructive crew. I can just see them yanking that pipe right out of there - unless it was bolted to the ground. I've read similar suggestions before though, so it must work. What keeps them from pulling the pipe up?