Heidi Chronicles: Nursing The Next Generation

This is the ongoing story of Heidi and friends, raccoons and the occasional opossum who frequent my backyard wildlife buffet.

It's nursing time right now. All of the buffet regulars are currently nursing young, and I suspect some kits will be showing up at the buffet very soon.

This year Heidi has apparently battled to keep the number of raccoons at the buffet to a bare minimum. This is better for the young kits. Just as we would be reluctant to take our toddlers to a large, noisy, and very crowded gathering where frequent arguments are the norm, Heidi is similarly unwilling to bring her babies to the buffet when it is crowded with too many other raccoons. Since the buffet reopened in spring, diners have been limited to Heidi plus some combination of 6 yearlings (Heidi's 4 and Frieda's 2) and Freida. Rarely do they all show up on the same evening. Except for Freida no other adults from prior years have been allowed. Since 1 yearling turned out to be a male - and males are not allowed to consume valuable buffet resources this time of year - the ladies ran him off. There are now only 5 yearlings left at the buffet.

Prior Thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1089673/
Original Thread in Series: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/603944/

The photo below is of Heidi. It was taken late yesterday afternoon shortly before dusk. It was taken at very close range with the camera < 1ft from Heidi's face (but sadly not set for closeups).

Ok, as promised here is my small (very, very small) treat for you. It has been a while now since we have had any video of our raccoon friends. Yesterday, a hungry and worn out Momma Heidi showed up at the backdoor while it was still quite light out. Seeing her out there in such good light reminded me to run back for my camera before going out to the buffet. Thus I ended up getting not just one but several videos of Heidi and the 2 yearlings (both Freida's) that showed up.

This video shows Heidi at the absolute beginning of her meal. At this point she & I are alone at the buffet. She is about 2ft from my toes. My bag is in front of my knees, leaving < 1ft between the bag and Heidi who is in front of and facing me. To get better video (and not just the top of her head), I put the camera into the space between Heidi and the bag. Remember this is a fairly large camera, maybe 8-10in with the lens extended, so it takes up most of the space and is quite close to Heidi's face.

At the start of the video she can be seen backing away from the camera a bit, uncomfortable with its presence. I talk to her a bit. Note that when I say her name and call her to come back to me, she steps forward again. Later in the video, the 2 yearlings arrive. These are not Heidi's kids but Frieda's. She speaks to them (quite a bit) - and it doesn't sound at all good. Although most of it sounds quite argumentative, she is 'talking' here. I was so excited to get so much of her talking on a recording - finally.

Then when I played it back, I was crushed to hear it. It does not sound at all the same on the recording. The subtle but very real nuances of her language have been 'clipped' somewhere between the camera and the software that plays it back. In the electronic clipping of the peaks and valleys from the sound file, the intelligence has been lost. The resulting sound, which sounds absolutely nothing like Heidi BTW, has none of the rich syllables I've so longed to 'show' you. Here it just sounds as if she is grumbling and growling. Although she is grumbling, please believe me when I tell you that there was much, much more to what she was saying, but the real heart of it has been lost in the translation. I really must get a good audio recording instrument and capture her 'language' while I still have the chance.

Here then w/o further explanation is Heidi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yghKNGDWnPM&feature=player_embedded

I hope you will have a chance to view it. I know that some of you, being on dial up, don't have the opportunity to view videos often. If you are able to view it, I hope you will enjoy this chance to see Heidi again. (The video runs about 2min long, BTW.)

Yipee!!!!
Wonderfull and many thanks to the production team of Cheryl n Heidi!
Heidi looks pretty good for a mom of, what....6 or 7 years old.?
I rewatched it a # of times and immagined the deep throaty warnings of " you can come, but just keep your distance. People mom and this pile of kibble are mine".
many big ^_^'s here!

Thank you, Sheri!

Did you notice Heidi come forward when I called her name? That is my favorite moment in the whole video - although it was completely unplanned and unexpected, something I didn't realize I had until I played it back.

Sheri,

Thank you also for letting me know that you could view it ok. I was wondering if there were any viewing problems and was standing by waiting to hear.

Cheryl, that video is wonderful! To be that close and her be so trusting, WOW! I really love watching her eat with her little paws, so cute. She is a beautiful creature.
I enjoy your posts so much, both here and about the cats. Cats are masters at training their people.

I actually got maybe 6 videos. They aren't the great, funny ones you get with active youngsters, but I did get Heidi doing a few cute things - and you get to see her again.

I'm working on another video now. The next one shows Heidi sitting every few minutes or so, especially near the end when you get to see her 'cute' sitting and eating position. I think she looks cute when doing that and I like to see her feeling comfortable enough in the yard (especially in daylight) to sit down and take a load off. I'm sure with all those babies she must be very tired.

If possible, try to ignore me babbling endlessly in the background. If the neighbors were outside during the 6 or so videos - and I talked through them ALL - they must surely have thought me quite loony over there all by myself and talking away. Here is another video. This one isn't so great, but around the 2:18 point, you can see a cute pic of Heidi sitting and eating: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Ia0EDNMVo

Thank you so much, Catbird!

I am very, very lucky, I know, to have been granted this opportunity to get to know Heidi and the others up close this way and to have been favored with Heidi's trust.

So funny about cats - and so true, too. Kitty woke me at 5:30AM this morning to see if she could get some canned food for an early breakfast. She tried and tried. I finally opened the front door and invited her to go outside for a while. I did NOT want to allow myself to be taught to get up and provide food on cue as I cant see that going anywhere good. It's too reminiscent of those cute 'cartoon' videos by that cat guy whose name eludes me.

Thank you for the wonderful compliments.

I think I am in Heidi heaven!

Cheryl,

Thanks so much for our video treats! That's one hungry mama! I loved hearing Heidi talk. Despite all your descriptions, I hadn't expected her vocalizations to be so long-winded - whole sentences, not just single commands...

I think you're wise to show Kitty who's boss... well, we know she's really the boss, but at least you're setting some limits! LOL!

Glad to hear that you pain is more controlled now.

Liz

Oh, noooo, I have to wait until I can get to the library to view it, as my computer is too slow to watch videos! I hope I can go tomorrow. So do we get to hear Heidi talking much?

very cute... my internet stalled out half way thru... but that's just our crappy wifi.

OH ..my lil one showed up early today.. i noticed her at about 9.15 scrounging out of a mostly BOSS shell filled feeder.
I so quickly turned off all the lights... i was watching her and she sat up Jerry like watching me back.

i ran to grab a chx carcass... she wanted nothing to do with that... added some kibble... she wanted nothing to do with that... she wandered back by the shed [i can't recall why i went back there] but she shimmied up the tree... then back down to clean up all the BOSS I toss for birds and squirrels ... i'm moving food around like a nutty person - trying to show her there is more snacks. she wants nothing to do with it... went back up front to look for more seeds on the ground. I went to the shed for more BOSS -- grabbed a scoop and left it on the back porch... by this time, i think she left. After about 15 min of waiting... i went back out and add the seeds to the squirrel feeder...and when i went back by the shed, i noticed she tore down my plastic finch feeder. [its a cheap piece of junk the Finches dont even eat out of]

If the other snacks are gone by morning... i guess you are right about other critters.

LOL... she's back at the feeder, with it half empty already... she must be a hungry gal tonight.

the Park is quite crowded for the weekend... there is a big Car Show up in the Dells -- so everyone and their brothers and cousins head to the Park. it could have spooked her out early.

she is a cutie though.

The videos are great, Cheryl, and Heidi appears to be in good weight for a nursing mom her age. The yearlings are gorgeous; the one on the right appears to have a giant tick (or a tiny spot of hair loss) at the shoulder blades; tis the season, especially in your area, I guess.

Hi Terese,

Have you tried just putting the BOSS in her dish? In the past I have offered them with dinner, sometimes mixing them in with kibble, sometimes putting the two side by side in the dish. Heidi definitely enjoys the seeds sometimes, but seems to prefer kibble for her normal fare. For her, kibble is the required daily entree, everything else an accoutrement. If she arrives to find all of her other favorites but no kibble, she will be very unhappy and will make her unhappiness known by flipping her dish over in a sudden burst of violence after looking around to determine that the kibble really isn't there anywhere. (I've only seen Heidi toss her dish a handful of times and it never fails to amuse me.)

Just to be sure I understand, is having the raccoon on the bird feeder a problem for you? I ask because, for some people, with certain types of feeders that aren't damaged by the raccoons, this isn't a problem. For me, it was about a $140 or so a year problem because I had to use squirrel proof feeders. The weight of the raccoon quickly derails the squirrel-proof mechanisms (like springs, motors, etc). I typically had to replace the feeder about 2x per year due to raccoon damage.

If you don't want her to use the feeder, I would suggest putting some BOSS in her dish. My guess, however, is that she will STILL raid the feeders regardless. It's just in their DNA to sample all of the food sources around them. On another video clip I made yesterday, Heidi is seen going over to sample one of the yearlings' food while the yearling is over at the pool for a drink, this despite the fact that they all have the same food.

Bird feeders, being in the air and accessible by climbing, probably seem very much like a 'normal' place to eat to them. Having been through the 'bird feeder wars' with the raccoons myself, I can relate to the problem. Even when I put BOSS in their dishes, I was never able to keep the raccoons from trashing the feeders in their attempts to eat from them. Near the end of their meals - which is when they are basically full but still looking around for something else to do and/or nibble on - some of the yearlings would start to wander over to climb the bird feeder to taste the seeds there even when they still had BOSS in their dishes. (That was back when they still had real dishes.)

For me the only things that worked to keep the raccoons off the feeders were either to take the feeders in at night, which has a host of associated problems, or to remove the feeders altogether. After a couple years of carrying the feeder in every afternoon and out again ever morning - which still didn't keep them from grabbing an afternoon snack - I finally and reluctantly gave up (for now) on feeding the birds. (I did so for other reasons, but it had the benefit of finally solving this problem.)

I'm reminded of trois at this point. He seemed to have a great system. He hung a flat type feeder, the kind that is not damaged by feeding raccoons and other wildlife. He hung the feeder in a spot that was good for him [to view], put a set amount of food in it each day, and let whoever came by eat from it until it was empty. At my house that would mean the squirrels would be sitting on it all day, and if they left any food behind, the raccoons and opossums would eat that. The birds would never have a chance to get near it.

LOL, Ruth,

On one of the video clips, one that I didn't post, as part of my babbling spree, I explain that the thing on the raccoon's neck/back is not a tick but rather a single piece of cat food which lodged there when I was tossing food to her - and showered her with kibble on one handful.

It is the season here though, for sure. I sometimes see ticks in the raccoons' ears when I am developing pictures. Just this past week I pulled another tiny tick off Cocoa, this one off his back, inside, ankle. I held Kitty down one day for a quick tick inspection (after I thought I saw one on her paw), but she wasn't at all happy about this. Oddly enough, Cocoa is actually much more amenable to tick inspection and removal than is Kitty. Anyhow, the spot seen on the raccoon to my right in the video is actually not a tick but a piece of kibble.

What amused me about this is, aside from the fact that the clip with the explanation got edited out, is that a few years back I once saw what I was sure was a giant tick on one of the raccoons - on the back of the neck. You correctly identified that one as kibble. When I zoomed way in on the original photo, sure enough it was kibble. That spot on the top/back of their necks, the area near the shoulder blades, is just a magnate for 'mis-thrown' kibble - and it sticks there so perfectly.

Glad you think Heidi is looking good. : )

The good news is that Heidi usually comes out early enough this time of year to allow for video. The bad news is that she rarely does anything particularly video worthy, no cute antics or anything like that. Still, it is a nice opportunity, I hope, for everyone to see her again.

Thank you, Catbird!

Thank you, Liz!

Glad you enjoyed the video.

The Dr and I are still working on getting the balancing act down just right. I have another appointment Monday. But, yes, for the most part I am doing much better. Thank you.

KyWoods,

Sorry that you won't be able to see the video right away. Although I do hope you get a chance to see it, I don't know if it warrants an emergency trip. The point I was trying to make above is that, while she was talking (and fussing and growling) while I was shooting the video, for the most part all that can be heard on the video is the fussing and growling.

She really doesn't sound at all the same on the video. Virtually all of the subtle variation and enunciation that I refer to as 'talking' is lost in the video. I fear that people will hear the video, which is mostly just fussing and growling, and think that is what I refer to as 'talking' when it really isn't. I kid you not, the real bulk of the 'talking' simply is not there on the video clip. I was incredibly disappointed when I heard it played back.

Still, I hope you get to see the video, but you might want to wait until you are making a trip anyhow.

Ok, a quick word on what happened tonight, err, last night, err, whenever - Friday evening.

It was late afternoon, early evening, maybe an hour or two before dusk. I went to the back door to check for Heidi, but didn't see her out there. Ms Kitty had followed me to the back door, however, and demanded to go out. I acquiesced foolishly expecting to see her head off on some trek through the neighborhood, as apposed to sitting their on the patio in front of the door as she actually did.

Something about Kitty's demeanor as she sat there alerted me that a raccoon was almost certainly present even if I hadn't seen one. I stuck my head out the door and called Heidi. I still didn't see any sign of her but persisted, unable to overlook Kitty's signals. As I stood there calling and searching the landscape around the door, I finally spotted movement in a hedge nearby. Figuring this was almost certainly a raccoon, I grabbed my bag and headed out to the buffet.

Sure enough, the raccoon in the bush was Heidi, and she followed me out to the buffet. She seemed a bit stressed out but quickly settled down to eat her dinner. It was quite light out at the time, BTW. As soon as I sat down out there with Heidi I became aware of Kitty's presence some distance away where she was walking about in the shrubs along the foundation of the house in the area where Heidi had been earlier.

A few minutes later, here came Kitty walking up on us a few feet to my right. Heidi was there alone at the time, no yearlings. Kitty appeared to be heading for the spot in the flowerbed where she had lain watching us several nights earlier (when the yearlings were there w/o Heidi). Since I have little control over Kitty anyhow, I ignored her. As I had never seen Heidi chase any animal except another raccoon, I expected she would also ignore Kitty. Was I ever wrong...

Kitty took a another step, maybe two. As soon as Kitty passed my body, the apparent southern most border of the buffet in Heidi's mind, I saw a side of Heidi that I have never seen before. Her ears went back, glued to her head and she I could see that she was about to go after Kitty.

At that moment, I went into autopilot, working more by instinct and habit than by conscious thought as there was little time really for the latter. "No!" I said to Heidi in a voice that was at once calm but authoritative. To my own amazement Heidi actually stopped in her tracks and looked at me. It was clear that Heidi understood the word "no" having heard me use it in dealing with Dennis and other wayward yearlings, and for an instant it actually looked as though she would yield to my words, something even I had not really expected. Again, I had uttered the words out of habit not actually expecting them to stop a wild raccoon bent on attack.

That Heidi paused even briefly shocked me, but my hold on her lasted only long enough for her to remember that, "Oh, yeah, the human is not my boss" and with that, Heidi took off after Kitty who split from the area in an instant. Thank goodness, Heidi was bluffing more so than intent on attack. She ran about 6ft down the garden path where Kitty had run and then turned and came back to eat her dinner.

By now, you may have figured out that neither of these two dominant females was about to budge. And so it was that Kitty would reappear behind me within a minute or so of the aborted attack, about long enough for her to go around the roses. And you probably also know that Kitty wasn't smart enough to wait for me back there near the house either. Right? So hear she comes up behind me again, and Heidi is looking around me watching Kitty's advance, and I'm trying to tell Kitty to go away and asking if she has a death wish or something.

Soon Kitty was back on my right side and intent on advancing. I began to think that these two 'ladies' had been introduced before and had possibly been arguing this way since back when Kitty 1st moved her kittens into the back of the garden sometime last winter. I gather Kitty knows that she can outrun Heidi and that Heidi isn't really intent on chasing her down anyhow.

Still, seeing that neither of these girls was going to give in and not wanting to see bloodshed, I said headed back to the house - which was what Kitty wanted anyhow.

Kitty 2346, Cheryl 0

>>Kitty 2346, Cheryl 0

rolfmao -- If i was drinking coffee.. it would have been spraying out my nose.

last night i could not keep an internet connect... happens every time the park get busy....

My lil one, Cleo I call her... boy was she HUNGRY... i watched her off and on for an hour and 20, move about eating in different areas....

when i came back to say she was back at the squirrel feeder [and Cheryl -- the coons cant get to the bird feeder, though a few squirrels have figured how to get there... i can post pics later ] she ate some kibble, but didnt prefer it, though it was gone in the AM.... so i do have a nightly visitor too as more BOSS was gone. She didnt seem to prefer the Chx breast, but must have enjoyed the 'bones' as she ate off the end of the carcass that was more bones than meat.... i saved the other half for a few days down the road....

Busy day today.... hopefully i'll be back later... and with a decent connection...

Still laughing about the piece of kibble...

Kitty is either super smart (highly possible), or knows Heidi well enough to know that she wouldn't pursue Kitty to the death (which she could certainly do if determined). That must have been a horrid few moments for you, and there was not a thing you could do.

here is an image i found... was taking pics of the Hummers...

i am standing on the back deck, it's got a covered overhang....
you can see the various 'feeders' ... hummer, bird and finch.
the red cable, that is Charlie's "runner" - i hook up a leash to his harness so he can "play" outside... while i've never witnessed it.. the Squirrels climb on the cable and shimmy?? over to the bird feeder... i've even seen the top 'flap' up, so they could get to the good stuff.

the trailer is 36' long... this is the back end, ,and the squirrel feeder -- you saw pics of that last year with the coons eating out of it... that is at the front of the trailer.

here's an image from a few yrs ago... but shows that side of the trailer... shot taken from the back corner of the shed... all teh way up front, you can see the squirrel feeder.

I love love love the videos!!

and that Kitty is a smart one, and so is Heidi!

Terese,

Thanks for the pic. It always helps to be able to picture the scene. Just as soon as I read that it's a squirrel feeder, I recalled all of that from last year, the photo and such. Sorry it took me so long to catch up. I guess my fixation on bird feeders is due to my own multi-year feeder wars with the coons, the one where I lost not only the war but every battle along the way.

So I gather that, as you can see Cleo and enjoy her antics regardless (of whether she uses the feeder or her dish), you don't mind if Cleo uses the feeder vs her dish. That's good - for all concerned. I am surprised that Cleo doesn't like kibble (a lot). For my group, kibble is the one universal food they all agree on. There are other things they like better, but none which work for all of the raccoons as the kibble does. Brand/type of kibble matters, but I'm assuming that you are using something 'good'. Mine don't eat the really cheap stuff at all well. With that they will begin to wander around looking for something better and quickly become disruptive. Things in this 'bad' category include: Jim Dandy, Ole' Roy, Alley Cat. Mine say the least expensive kibble they like are Purina Cat and Dog Chow. Although they clearly don't like them as well, they will eat Friskees and 9-Lives. Other forms of colorful, slightly gimmicky, grocery store cat products like Meow-Mix also cause them to nibble a bit and then start looking for something else to eat.

It just may be that Ms Cleo prefers BOSS though, and it's certainly starting to sound that way. Well, at least you have BOSS on hand, and sunflower seeds are high in protein and good for her. Do you know if she is nursing? I'm guessing she probably is. They have enormous appetites when nursing. Can you just imagine nursing up to 5 or 6 babies at once? That has to take a very rapid toll on the body's resources.

I could NOT find that red cable for the longest time. Oh, and I have no doubt those wily con-artist, acrobatic squirrels can cross the cable to reach the bird feeder. I fought years of squirrel wars over the bird feeder, too. In both cases, squirrel and raccoon, I repeatedly learned how powerless I really am in trying to outsmart them. For squirrels I eventually found two bird feeders that ended their ability to eat from the bird feeders: 1 which closes when the squirrel's weight exceeds the limit of the springs and another which also closes on weight and which has a hooded overhang to block the squirrels eating from above. If you are wondering why I didn't just let the 'poor' squirrels have a nibble and be done with it, I tried that, too, but soon had such robust squirrel activity at the feeder as to keep the birds from ever having the chance to eat there at all, not to mention that the squirrels devoured (and carted off) the entire contents of the feeder daily - little scoundrels. Living along the forest edge, I have a huge squirrel population. I also bought several squirrel feeders in an effort to make all of my wildlife happy, but the raccoons kept tearing them up, too. Argh!

Glad that you are enjoying your opportunity to interact with and watch Cleo (plus squirrels, hummers, birds, etc). Isn't that just so incredibly relaxing? For me it's like meditation w/o the "ohm". Cares of the day just melt away.

Ms Kitty, BTW, is amazingly cunning.

Thank you, Susan!

I am so glad to hear that you guys really do enjoy them. I have one or two more, each with its own unique things to show. None are likely to go viral or anything (understatement of the year) as the raccoons aren't performing cute tricks or anything, but still I thought after so many years of reading about the raccoons it might be nice occasionally to just see them in the act of being themselves.

I really was shocked to see Heidi go after Kitty that way - with ears flattened and all that. For all the years I've dealt with Heidi, it's an absolute 1st. In contrast, I can't begin to tell you how many, many times Heidi ran from my little Maltese dogs, both Widget and Sassy. I had no doubt Heidi could have clobbered both of them, but she always opted to climb the fence and wait for me to put them away before coming back down to eat (and Sassy was a female).

I'm still trying to get my head around why Heidi went after Kitty that way. I mean, unlike the dogs, Kitty wasn't even launching an attack or otherwise threatening Heidi at the time. She was just walking by. I'm gathering the dynamic between them must be due to, as Ruth said, 2 strong matriarchs with overlapping territories - and I'm starting to think in this case territory includes not just real estate but also human 'pets'.

I enjoyed the video. Reminded me of when I used to feed raccoons. I sometimes use the Frontline Plus on the cats to keep ticks off. It works well. I once asked my doctor if they have something that works for humans. I think he thought I was kidding...I wasn't! I hate ticks! This year doesn't seem too bad, but ticks have been more of a problem ever since 2002, when we had flooding in the summer and much rain. Even that horrid drought we had afterward didn't seen to rid us of them, even though last summer the insects practically ceased to exist. The deer sort of came back this spring, but the two does that would frequently appear in the morning near the yard and the fawns they'd sometimes leave on the property during the day because it's fairly safe here...well, not happening. I've only seen one that occasionally comes on the property, just coming by in the evening. The overgrown vacant property next door along the dry creek, that's where I most see signs of deer now, the overgrown vegetation flattened down in places.
Some cats are just naturally manipulators, they can't help it. We have a cat door in the back, but two of the cats get up on the front deck to a workbench just outside the living room window and "signal" me to let them back in the front door by peering in the window and rattling the screen. If I ignore them they just keep it up.

Thanks, Linda,

Glad you enjoyed the video. When I 1st got Kitty I tried to get prescription flea and tick products for her, but my vet refused to prescribe it w/o an office visit. Since at this time I can only get them to the vet by trapping them, I declined. Fighting them to get them to SPCA for the one visit (each) was enough for me for now. I probably should call the SPCA to see if their vets might provide a prescription though since they actually saw the cat(s). It's worth a try. I actually forgot about that with everything else that was going on in my personal life at the time.

I do realize that I need to start working on feeding them in the crate to get them used to it. That presents its own logistic problems and so I've been postponing it - but I had been thinking about it recently.

Above all, I need to treat the yard for ticks and fleas. In the years before my knee injuries, the event that started the more or less constant pain that has plagued me in recent years and limited what I can do, I treated the lawn every year in spring. That made a huge difference. Back then I never saw any ticks on Widget and had little or no flea problems. (Widget, by comparison, takes all 3 forms of prescription flea protection including one that works for ticks, but due to the excellent hiding places provided by his very long, thick coat and due to the numbers of fleas and ticks tracked into the yard by wildlife coming out of the adjacent forest, he STILL has the occasional tick and STILL suffers flea bites upon returning from the yard, at least until the flea or fleas finally succumb to the effects of his meds which, again, takes longer due to his massive coat. Thank goodness I had purchased a yr supply of his flea/tick/heartworm meds before loosing my job.) Based on my experience with Widget I gather that the flea/tick problems will continue as long as the fleas and ticks are in the yard.

I have daily/nightly deer visitors to my yard, too. As I don't have tall grass - I'm in the city, so HOA would loose its mind - I don't get the fawns, but the rest of the herd comes through the front and side yard nightly around 10PM on their way to and from the pond across the street - where, like the zebra seen in wildlife TV programs, some probably fall prey to the alligators waiting there, but I digress. The deer and I have a long standing war, too, since they mow down my roses and daylilies on their way through the yard each night. They basically think of my side yard as a salad bar. In April I have beautiful roses that draw numerous compliments from passersby and which provide me with relaxation, beauty and heady perfume, but from May until sometime in fall, the deer eat not only the flowers and bud but even the leaves and stems to the ground all but killing the plants.

I think sometimes cats just like to be mischievous. Maybe she wanted to play with Heidi like the way she does with the dog. After all she seeing you here with another animal and she plays with Widget.

Had to laugh at tv this morning. One of the animal shows was talking about raccoons and that how nobody really knows why they liek to wash their food. Is it they don't have enough saliva glad? Is it to soften it? Is it to make sure no germs on it?

Then they were taking about how raccoons will eat anything and I started laughing thinking they sure haven't met Heidi and how picky she is. LOL

I usually buy the Frontline or Advantage through the internet, no vet required...it's also sold in certain pet or feed stores. It's too bad the fleas have developed some degree of resistance to the stuff, because it used to work a lot better on them.

We buy Advantage on Amazon.com, too. Their prices are pretty good, and you don't need a prescription.

This message was edited May 22, 2010 2:29 PM

I hope Kitty is a bit more cautious of Heidi once those kits start coming. Heidi might just score her own point, even if you are still at a zero!
I do love your videos, stories, sense of humor etc. Got 1 sure fan here!

I'm with you, birdieblue; if Kitty messes with Heidi's kits, she'll get a lesson she'll never forget! Hopefully she has better sense than to try that one.

Cheryl, you need to be a bit careful about flea/tick treatments for the yard. The way the raccoons dig and paw through the grass for their food could be problematic when it's sprayed with insecticide. You just need to check that the ingredients are "pet-safe."

Last night (before dark), although Kitty did show up while I was feeding Heidi and the 2 yearlings that were there, this time Kitty stayed back at the corner of the shrubs near the house. That seems to be a safe place for her, a place where Heidi doesn't feel the buffet space is violated.

I didn't go out to feed the raccoons tonight. A line of thunderstorms came through in the hours before dark, nothing serious just rather average storms, but enough to keep me inside. Later, by the time the storms were over and the rain had stopped, it was dark out. My flashlight batteries are dead now, so I don't feel comfortable walking around out there in the dark (due to snakes).

When I went out the front door after the storm to feed Cocoa, I watched as a raccoon scampered down the [front] walkway. Seeing this I figured I would have to stay with Cocoa while he ate. A few minutes later, the raccoon returned probably smelling Cocoa's food. Cocoa saw the raccoon before I did. I can't even describe what Cocoa did then, except to say that it was he, not the raccoon, who scared the #$%@ out of me. About the same time, the raccoon saw me and turned to waddle off again. Cocoa came to a stop at the base of the headless crepe myrtle tree in the flowerbed near the door. If he was planning to climb that 6ft stump to escape the raccoon, he has a lot to learn about raccoons.

When I couldn't convince Cocoa to come back and eat, I decided to go out into the front yard to see if the raccoon was still nearby. I found the little devil sitting in the driveway between the garage door and the front of the car, apparently waiting for me to go back inside so that he could return and steal the cat's food. I ran the raccoon off - where 'off' means 'just around the front corner of the house' where I imagine he sat waiting for me to leave.

When Cocoa finished eating, I took the dish inside with me as I could see the whole pack of raccoons hanging around in the shadows where they reminded me of those devil-like creatures from the movie Ghost.

I finally got to the back of the freezer. Review: I'm temporarily unemployed and am finally eating the stuff from the freezer and pantry. This keeps my costs low and has the added benefit of finally getting rid of all this stuff I had accumulated. At some point the freezer had gotten so full that I could not find anything in there without the risk of sending an avalanche of heavy, frozen objects crashing to my feet. Then I would have to spend time trying to find just the right angle to pack it all back in there and get it to stay by which time I was no longer interested in cooking and would call for delivery. It had also reached the point at which it was useless for further storage as I could no longer add anything. So now, finally, I was eating my way to the back. It was a good feeling.

In the beginning of this 'experiment', I had found a wealth of yummy things in there. Then I had reached a plateau of sorts, finding and having to eat only ordinary stuff. Over the weekend I finally broke through to the back of the freezer where I found more [lost] goodies: 97% fat free ground beef, 'fresh' salmon fillet, a lb of sea scallops, Mongolian Beef dinner kit, Steak/pasta/artichoke/blue cheese dinner kit, bag of meatballs, bag of portabella mushroom ravioli. Frozen peaches. Frozen bananas. (smoothie material). Shelled edemame. Bag of snow peas with baby corn. Hmm, good meals ahead - for me.

I also found a pkg of ground beef and a pkg of turkey Italian sausage, both damaged by freezer burn. Drat. Although good sense said to toss these items, I figured either the raccoons or the opossums or some other wildlife would be happy to save them from the landfill. I piled the damaged stuff in a large, gallon sized container, covered it to contain the 'aroma' for freezer burn, and put it in the microwave to cook for a little while. Yesterday afternoon, I took the entire container out to the fence where I dumped it to await dusk and the giant wildlife party.

Later that afternoon, I went to the patio door to let Kitty out, and was momentarily frightened by the sound of tremendous wings flapping as giant birds of prey (and carrion) took to the air in the back yard. At 1st I couldn't imagine what they were doing back there. Then I realized that they were in the area around where I had dumped all that meat. Had they been drawn to the large pile of meat near the fence? Did this look and/or smell to them like the remains of a dead animal? Shrubs and trees blocked my view.

As 2 gigantic birds took to the air so close to me that I could see their wrinkled, red faces and necks. Turkey vultures? In my backyard? I had never been so close to these birds. They were enormous and more than a little threatening when viewed this close up. One bird remained perched in the weeping willow. Several other large birds road the currents overhead, circling low and threatening close to us. Kitty! What about Kitty? Suddenly she looked small in comparison to these massive winged throwbacks to the Jurassic.

I looked at Kitty who was sitting on a patio chair, one of her new, favorite seats. I could see her duck down visibly as the massive beasts glided low over our heads quite obviously checking us out. These low hoovering velociraptors were making ME uncomfortable. Suddenly, I really feared for Kitty. Would they consider her lunch? Would one try to dip down and carry her off? Could they?

I tried and tried to convince Kitty to come back inside. Although even she looked a bit unnerved by these large winged predators and scavengers or the sky. She also seemed preoccupied with them. Was she afraid of them, or did she look at them and thing, "Wow, one of those birds would make a nice meal." They were birds, after all, but they were bigger than she. Surely, she didn't see them in the same light as the mockingbirds she and Cocoa had been dining on recently.

I don't know the answer for sure, but I was unable to get Kitty to come back inside. Eventually, I left her out there with the huge birds still gliding low around her. I hoped she would show up again later when I called her for her dinner. I would definitely have to rethink this idea of putting out large quantities of damaged meat culled from the deep freeze. I guess, at the very least, I should be careful to wait until near dusk to put meat out for the wildlife. Ok, I guess therepods are wildlife, but I'm not so sure I want them in my backyard and hoovering over my patio. At any rate, having reached the back of the freezer, there would be no more free meat for wildlife for a while.

I didn't see any sign of the raccoons, at least not before dark (I still need to get some more D-cell batteries for the flashlight before I can go out after dark again). I'm not sure if maybe the raccoons, too, were unnerved by the close presence of these enormous birds that had suddenly claimed my backyard as their own and were out there all evening guarding it jealously - while they were eating the meat, I guess.

Up close, the vulltures can be large and intimidating. I sometimes walk downhill on my drive way to the street at night and unwittingly disturb large birds, mostly vultures or an owl. Talk about scary...walking along peacefully in the dark and suddenly there's a big noisy flapping noisy disturbance in the trees right overhead. Ooh! I guess they are scared by me, too...but I'm just glad I have a good, strong heart when that happens!

Whew! Linda,

Yes, they are a bit intimidating when seen up close. It's easy at a distance or when viewing them in photos, to think, "Oh, they are just bird." but up close they are huge, their wings beat with enormous strength, and they are more than a little freaky. I found them unnerving, and I was standing in the doorway to my house - where I could easily turn around and run back inside if attacked. I can't imagine running into them suddenly in the dark. That must be scary - and something of a cardiac test.