Today was another enjoyable day at the buffet. The daily, late afternoon storm came through around 4 or 5PM as usual, so I figured the buffet would be closed for inclement weather again, but the storm cleared allowing the sun to peak out briefly around 7:15. With sundown around 7:50 that barely allowed time for a quick meal.
When I got out there I found that it actually was still raining lightly, but I kept my supplies covered and decided to stay for a while as long as the rain didn't get to heavy. I stayed in part because I was hoping to get a chance to make sure Bast got some food - if she showed up, that is. The light rain didn't stop the raccoons from coming out or eating their food. I put Heidi's dish under a plastic table. She wasn't there yet, and I didn't want her dish to fill up with water. After 10 to 15min the rain ended.
Dennis was waiting near the door when I stepped out, but her kits were not with her. She sat beside me, at my leg as usual where she ate a combination of kibble and cookies. It's so cute the way she sits upright and takes the cookie with her hands, but it's probably the kind of thing you really need to see to appreciate. When she wanted another she would sit upright and and very gently rub my leg with the pads of her front paws. It seems that with maturity she has learned much better ways of communicating - as apposed to grabbing at things. And most amazingly, these days when I put the cookies away to save some for another day, Dennis just sits down to eat her kibble without any of the endless begging and arguing she used to do. This new behavior is SO refreshing.
Heidi arrived with Petey. Not seeing her dish, she stopped at her regular area in front of me and looked up at me as if to ask, "where's mine?" I reached forward, lifted the dish from under the table, held it a few inches in the air, and said, "here's your dish, Heidi" before setting it back down again in the same place. As though she completely understood English, Heidi stepped under the table to eat her food.
Petey, BTW, is still one of the most adorable kits I've seen. I didn't mention that yesterday only because it was so busy that day, but I still noticed it then as I did today. He's just too cute for words. I think, in part, it's the way he moves, sits, etc. He's pretty small, and he sits down sometimes to eat, and he just does it in a manner that makes you want to giggle just looking at him. Hard to explain, and I couldn't take the camera out due to rain. I'll try to get a pic of him soon, and will hope the cuteness factor transfers to photos.
It was about this time that Kitty started calling me loudly...and calling...and calling...and...
She hadn't eaten all day (not cat food, at least. I can't vouch for birds). I had gone to the doors a number of times to call her, but the off and on storminess (she's storm phobic) and rain had kept her holed up in her den somewhere so that by this time she was likely quite hungry. With only Heidi, Dennis, and Petey at the buffet, I decided to chance a trip back to the house to let Kitty in so she could get started eating her kibble and I wouldn't have to listen to her through the whole buffet experience. Recently, Kitty has begun to be friendly again. It seems an interesting coincidence that she has also resumed showing up at the buffet.
Kits usually run away when I go to the house and return again, so when I didn't see Petey as I walked back up to my seat, I was disappointed but not surprised. It was only after I sat down that I looked to my left to see him there eating only about 2ft away from me. He hadn't run away at all. In fact, while I was gone he had moved from his spot on the other side of the buffet to this spot near me. Even when I walked back to the buffet, he had stayed in his new spot eating. Nice, but then I find that kits, not surprisingly, take their cues from their parents. Since Petey sees Heidi eating so close to me and not running away when I get up to walk to the house and return, he feels safe doing the same. Likewise, Dennis' kits feel comfortable coming up to me because their mom sits against my leg taking food from my hand and allowing me to pet her.
By this time Dennis had left. Petey, who was a few feet away from me, slowly wandered over until he ended up eating from Dennis' stash of food at my side. He never comes to me directly but always meanders around making it looks as though, while searching for food, he just ended up there quite by coincidence. After he ate beside me for a while he sneaked up to my leg again as though looking for kibble on the ground - even though he still had plenty in the pile from which he had been eating (Dennis' leftovers). He sniffed my leg and my hand, a long, slow sniff, and then went back to eat his food. I'm still biding my time before attempting to interact with him as I don't want to risk scaring him. He won't eat cookie pieces, neither s/w or animal, so I can't ply him with treats. Fooey. (Hey, there's a reason why the witch used cookie crumbs to lure Hansel and Gretel.)
The yearling (or whoever she is) showed up with her 3 kits. It was starting to get a little crowded at the buffet when I looked up to see a lone kit making his way across the area and heading straight for me. I immediately recognized him/her as one of Dennis' kits, the more adventurous one, the one who had recently become comfortable taking cookie pieces from my hand. To see the kit come out alone (Dennis had been gone for a little while already and her other kits were not at the buffet either, just this one there alone) and head straight to me made me smile. He came right up to my side, and I handed him a small piece of cookie followed by another and another...I also put some kibble down on that side of me for him. He stuck around for a while to eat kibble and cookies.
Finally, when it was almost dark, Bast showed up with 2 of her kits (or I only saw 2 anyhow). Bast started out eating a little distance away, but once Heidi left taking Petey with her, Bast quickly relocated to the spot beside me, the one where Dennis and later Petey had eaten. Bast's kits stayed on the lawn a short distance outside the buffet area where they could quickly return to the willow if frightened.
At one point when I thrust my arm back behind me preparing to execute an underhand toss of kibble to Bast's kits, my hand came to rest against something soft, wet, furry, and fairly immovable. It took me a moment or so to get my bearings and realize that the object I had struck and against which my arm now rested was Bast. She had gone behind me to drink from the garden buddy seat, and when I swung my hand down and back to toss the kibble, I had basically hit her, not hard, of course, but still I was quite surprised to have struck her at all.
The raccoons always move away from anything scary or even anything that just makes them uncomfortable. I would have expected Bast to move away from my hand as I swung it back, but she hadn't. She didn't even move away after my hand bumped into her body. She just stood there my arm pressed up against her for the second or so response time it took my brain to move it. She just looked at me for a minute when I turned around to get a grip on what I had struck and what was going on, and then she put her head back into the garden buddy seat to drink some more as if the whole thing were a non-event. Although Bast is not the 'in your face' pet that Dennis is, I think it's pretty clear she had become pretty much as comfortable around me.
I was really enjoying the company of all the raccoons and especially the kits most of whom are starting to pay attention to me lately (cookies), but it was really getting dark by this time, so, reluctantly, I said my goodbyes and headed back to the house - where I found Kitty sitting on my chair just inside the kitchen/patio door, the chair I sit on to put on and take off my boots. She was waiting for me to come back to serve the canned food. She stayed in the chair and let me pet her - which means I had to take my boots off while standing.
Edited to add: Considering that storms and rain kept Kitty away all day and considering that we had a heavy storm in the late afternoon ending around 7PM, would you believe it's thundering and raining AGAIN? OMG, will it ever end?
This message was edited Aug 23, 2010 12:18 AM
Heidi Chronicles: Up To Our Ears In Kits
Really glad to hear that Bast is getting some nourishment; four kits is a lot for any mother, but especially for one who had such a rough time last year. And yes, she sounds every bit as comfortable around you as Dennis is.
Petey sounds adorable! And I'm sure Heidi's hoping that her frustrated comments will teach Dennis' kits the manners she so clearly has not imparted to them.
Being the good mother that she is, teaching good manners, etc. I would imagine that Heidi's scolding to the kit who wandered to close didn't contain any blue raccoon words. I bet she made it clear though for it to eat near the correct mama!
I'm very glad that the weather was conducive to your serving a buffet for the crowd from the woods. It sure sounds like Bast especially was in need of a good meal.
with so many animals greetings including the sniffing of each others rears, it only seems appropriate that yours gets some approving sniffs also! LOL
I hope that you are still feeling somewhat OK and able to putter around the house. Rainy weather usually makes my arthritis and other pain issues much more difficult to "ignore".
Sheri
ROFL at "blue raccoon words"--good one, Sheri! That is amazing that Bast didn't run off when you reached back there, Cheryl. Maybe she'll be the next to let you pet her.
Re: food stamps, I have a single male friend who is 36 and had to move back in with his parents due to change in employment, and he gets food stamps. But maybe the requirements are different in different states. I hope you qualify. Maybe if you put the critters down as dependents, lol.
KY -- in the Pets Forum.... we have a "Dog Howse" thread.... we use the term "Blue Words" all the time for 'cussing'.
I can imagine Miss Heidi not having to use Blue Word to keep her kids in line.
yep, I learned that term from Elvis! ^_^
Today the neighbor was repeatedly banging on something [metal on metal] in his garage when I went out for buffet time. Whatever he was working on, he had been out there banging on things for a while. Earlier when I took Widget out, he was almost too interested in the banging sound to take care of his duties watering the grass. Afterward, when I got out to the buffet, the banging sound continued along with the sound of the grown daughter talking loudly on her cellphone in the backyard, perhaps trying to be heard over the noise. I was out there [at the buffet] a good 45min or so, dripping sweat, battling mosquitoes, face stinging from the application of Off to hot skin w/open pores, but none of the raccoons showed up at all except Bast who came with the 2 kits just before sundown. I'm figuring the noise kept the raccoons from coming into the yard especially in daylight when they tend to be more skittish than usual.
I would really like to see Bast put some weight back on, so if I was only going to see one raccoon family today, I was glad it was Bast. I felt better knowing that she had eaten a healthy meal. (Some of those ripe, dark grapes are still hanging along the top of the fence, BTW, so she must not be 'starving' hungry. Bast was always a picky eater at the buffet, refusing to taste almost anything except cat/dog food and s/w cookies. I can't recall where she stood on grapes. I think she might have eaten a very few early on and then refused to eat anymore. Either way those wild grapes are totally different in taste and texture vs commercial/cultivated grapes. When eating the wild grapes, humans usually don't eat the flesh of the grape or the skin choosing only to suck out the juice and toss the rest.)
Bast was still eating when I left for the evening.
As I mentioned, yesterday Bast didn't show up until just before sundown. Still, at one point when the neighbor started his lawn mower briefly, Bast and her kits run over to the weeping willow where a row of hydrangeas separated them from the rest of the world. I called to Bast by name to tell her it was ok and to encourage her to come back. Through the gaps in the shrubs, I could see her face looking at me as I talked, her ears pointed upright as she listened and thought about it. After a minute or so, her head peaked out from the bottom of the shrubs, and with a little more encouragement she returned to eat.
I gather the neighbor was working on his lawn mower. I wasn't upset with him. He wasn't making so much noise as to disturb the humans in the neighborhood, only the raccoons as the latter tend to be very sensitive to any sign that humans are out and about - as well they should be. It's just how it is.
Precious Bast. I am so glad she made it and is bringing her kits to the buffet. Her trust in you as a safety guard is amazing, given the mower noise just next door. bot of course she has always known you as safe caretaker and provider of goodies, hasn't she!
Sheri,
Right after I last posted about being up at 3AM in pain and counting the minutes until I could take my next pain pill, the breakthrough pain subsided. For weeks I was fine most of the time. Then yesterday and last night I had disturbing breakthrough pain again.
Although I've noticed extra aches and pains with rain from time to time, I'm finding that my severe breakthrough pain is guided more by the calendar. It's very much a cyclical thing - if you know what I mean. If we count the days between my last post about pain in the early AM, the total will almost certainly be roughly 28 days or some multiple thereof. The Dr says our hormones alter the way our bodies perceive pain at that certain time, so that's when I have my painful days and nights.
While the 4-7 days of pain are difficult, it's encouraging to understand the cycle and know that everything will be back to 'normal' soon. Actually, after I last wrote about how bad it was to be up at 3AM trying to make it to 'pill time', within a day or so I was back to 'normal' enjoying mostly pain free days and sleeping through the night. Then I found myself sleeping 30 min to an hour past time to take my pain pill and often even found that, when it was time to take my daily pain pill, I still didn't have any pain at all. (Right now I'm back in that slump of counting the minutes, but, again, it's good to know that this too shall pass.)
Pain wise, yesterday was a bit rough as I mentioned (but the 1st painful day in a month). When buffet time rolled around, I was lying down and had, for the moment, found that sweet spot where nothing hurts. I couldn't convince myself to give up that sweet spot and get up to feed the raccoons. I decided to skip that day. About an hour later, I heard Widget barking at the back door and knew the raccoons must be out there.
By that hour it was looking almost dark out, but once I got up to see Dennis and Heidi waiting for me on the patio, I couldn't resist going out there to feed them. Dennis was sitting with her back against the door. Across the patio, the yearling was lying on her stomach, her paws straight out in front of her, chin resting on her paws. That's a cute look, something you see a lot with dogs but don't expect with raccoons. I've seen them adopt that position a few times always while waiting for dinner.
back in a few to finish. have to walk Widget who is standing beside me with all 4 legs crossed.
Last night was pretty much the norm. The usual characters were present. Since it was almost dark when I got out there, I didn't stay long. I waited as long as I possibly could hoping to catch Bast and make sure she had food before I left. By the time she arrived, I could barely still see the grass beneath my feet, but she did make it. One of the [more disagreeable] yearlings was over on the willow side where Bast usually hangs out, so when she arrived, Bast made a dash past the yearling running up to my side. Her kits were with her again. This time instead of staying over near the willow to eat, they came over to where Bast was beside me (for the 1st time).
Backing up a bit to the moment when I 1st went out...I've become so accustomed to the level of trust and comfort the raccoons and I enjoy now, that sometimes I forget just how very far we've come and how things used to be. When I 1st got out there I had 3 raccoons all wanting to be fed immediately. The good news, however, is that Dennis has finally learned to wait her turn and not aggravate Heidi. I put a handful of food in Heidi's dish which was a mere 2ft from the end of my toes, and then gave Dennis and the yearling a handful.
Once everyone had something to eat, I turned back to Heidi and started filling her dish. She had her head down in the dish eating when I reached my hand down to just 5-6in above the dish to drop the food in. Heidi lifted her head and leaned back a bit looking up at me to gauge the meaning of my intrusion into her space. She stood her ground and even grabbed a quick bite between handfuls as I reached over to put handful after handful into her dish. It was only then that I stopped to realize what I had done reaching so close to her face to put the food in her dish. I wasn't so much concerned that I had reached so close. If she had felt threatened, Heidi would merely have backed away. I just suddenly became aware of how far we had come. Only a year or so ago I would have tossed each handful of kibble into her dish from a foot or two away. Now it just seemed natural to reach down to the dish and drop the kibble in it. Doing so was less noisy and didn't result in kibble bouncing out onto the lawn.
Naturally, with Dennis I reach my hand all the way down to the ground beside her face to deposit the food there - less bouncing and scattering of food. I don't really think about it anymore. It just seems natural. Often, like yesterday, when she's too close to my seat to allow me to easily reach down beside her on the side closest to me, the side 'jammed' up against my leg, I will reach my arm over her back and neck to put the food down on the opposite side of her face. She doesn't even stop eating to look up at me. Also, these days when Dennis wants a cookie and I'm looking around the buffet, feeding others, and not paying attention to her at the moment, she will sit upright at my side and rub her paws gently on my mid thigh to get my attention.
Tonight Petey showed up a few minutes after the meal started, arriving alone. Still, I recognized him as soon as I saw him coming down the fence. I can't say how exactly. There is just something about that little guy. To reach his desired destination, he had to pass Dennis' kits, who were on the other side of the buffet where Granny Heidi had told them to stay. In a manner reminiscent of playground bullies, they accosted him saying he could not pass. Petey has an almost comical way of dealing with such things. When the lead bully walked up to him (and they are much larger than him), he dropped his belly to the ground in a defensive pose and stood his ground but made no attempt to cross the line they had drawn in the sand. Then as soon as they turned to eat, he walked right by them and Heidi (since he is allowed to do this) to come to the spot of food beside me.
Petey almost always eats beside me, having failed to do so only once so far. I don't know why he does this. I guess even at his young age he realizes that I'm the source of the good stuff. Thankfully, Heidi hasn't told him to stay back - and I have seen her tell her kits that in the past. She will let them to a certain point, usually about the same distance where she feels most comfortable, but when they start to walk past that spot will usually stop them. I see it very clearly, the moment when Heidi says, "Don't go too close." Once she does that, the kits never come up to me again, at least not until they are grown and on there own and even then it's very tough for them to get the courage to go beyond what their mother told them as babies. But so far, Heidi hasn't warned Petey to stay back. I see her looking at him sometimes when he comes up to sniff me, but so far she hasn't made a move to stop him.
It was another very nice evening at the buffet. Short but nice. I was glad I had decided to go out. The only downside now is that with so many adults and kits, they are really scarfing down the food.
How nice of Widget to give the alert that the buffet group had arrived.
Your description of Dennis gently tapping you to get your attention is just like a little kid tugging at momma's skirt, etc to get attention.
Petey is an interesting little character too. I think you have confirmed his being a male, right? If that is the case, will Heidi at some point send him packing? Maybe he is the new "HRH".
regarding pain- I had never thought of the cyclic nature of some pain, but it sure makes sense. Knowing that a reprieve is coming within days would make the bad days a bit more bearable. We women have always had to endure a week of discomfort or at least inconvenience every month.
sending a hug and a prayer,
Sheri ^_^
Sheri,
I'm not so sure the raccoons do that 'butt sniffing' as greeting thing like dogs do. In all the time (5yrs now) that I've been feeding them, I've not seen them do that even once. It could be that for the most part these raccoons already know each other, but it seems like I would have seen some indication of the behavior. The only exception was a time or two when I saw a kit sneak up close behind an adult and sniff (from a distance of about 8 to 10in), but it really looked more like the kit was approaching from the rear for stealth purposes and also because he felt more comfortable staying away from the end with the teeth.
Even if raccoons don't do the 'butt sniff' greeting, like any animal they can still gather the most information about another creature by sniffing that area. Dogs, I'm told, can determine a wealth of information that way including: gender, health, status, relative age, and so forth. I would imagine raccoons can do the same.
I'm inclined to believe the raccoons who come up behind me to drink from the garden buddy take advantage of the opportunity to sniff while they are back there more due to the stealth thing mentioned above. I just think they are more comfortable checking me out from a position in which I can't see them. I could be wrong, of course, but that's my take on it. The same raccoons never cop a sniff when approaching from the front, not even when they walk between and under my outstretched legs to drink from the front. Many dogs, on the other hand, even dogs who had never seen me before would be inclined to take advantage of that opportunity to sniff, much to the chagrin of any human who had encountered such a dog in a social situation. That behavior may be normal for dogs, but it tends to make us humans quite uncomfortable especially in social situations.
I realize the raccoons don't have any ulterior motives or anything of the kind when doing these things. They lack both our human inhibitions and the meanings we associate with such areas of the body. I mentioned the events only in hopes of conveying the feeling of having a wild animal so close to such sensitive areas. I wanted you the reader to realize how comfortable the raccoons must be to be willing to place themselves in such precarious positions as to essentially walk up under my body and then place their heads through the gap in the garden seat under me to drink. I wanted you to feel their desire to know more about our species as, after drinking their fill, they took the opportunity to touch their noses gently to my hip to feel my skin through the fabric and sniff my body odor. I wanted you to place yourself on that garden buddy seat with wild, adult raccoons walking under your legs to drink from the front of the seat under you. I wanted you to take a deep breath and try not to move away as they walked up behind you to drink from the back of the seat. I wanted you to hold your breath and resist the urge to run away as you felt the soft touch of their nose touch your buttock and pondered the proximity of all those savage teeth to your sensitive flesh, your mind racing as you realize that no matter how tame they may appear they are still wild animals, and, however unlikely it may seem, they might be moved to bite you at any moment.
I really think the raccoons, the few who drink from the garden seat when I'm around, just like it because the water there is always fresh. I think they touch their noses to my backside for the same reason that baby Dennis spent so much time feeling every millimeter of my finger that night years ago. They are intelligent and thus very curious animals, and for them as for me this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's the only chance they've every had or ever will have to get so close to a human, the only chance to sniff a human up close, the only chance to touch a human even if only through fabric, the only chance to feel the 'hairless' skin of such a strange animal as we.
Yep!! You are amazing! I just experienced it all thru your word picture! Very Cool and a bit unnerving at the same time. I so love the feel of their soft little hands
I don't remember reading that finger inspection by Dennis. But then my memory is sort of like a seive.
Sheri,
The incident with Dennis and the finger would have been in spring or early summer of 2007. It is among my most treasured raccoon memories. Dennis was still a very young, small kit at the time. She was the 1st kit and really still the only kit ever to interact with me so fearlessly. She would come over to me and stand up at my knee. As a baby, she was very sweet. It was in her teens and 'twenties' that she later became a bit of a brat (for a while), but as a young kit she was very sweet.
That was only my 2nd year dealing with the raccoons, so I was still very much afraid of them. We were learning about each other at the same time. Dennis would stand upright at my knee, and I would give her treats. She started reaching for my hand as I would pull it away after giving her a treat and even when there was no treat. Afraid that she might bite me, I always pulled my hand away. Then one night, I let her reach up and take my hand as she had been trying to do for a while. I was curious to see what she wanted, but at the same time afraid.
When I let Dennis (remember, she was a tiny kit then) grab my hand, she reached up and took hold of my pointer finger and gently pulled it down to her level. This, BTW, was the 1st time I had the opportunity to feel the velvety skin on the inside of their hands. Dennis began very slowly 'walking' her two hands along my finger from top to bottom so that she touched every square millimeter of my finger. It was as though she were reading my finger in braille, as though she were mapping out and memorizing every millimeter of its surface. She continued to do this for a relatively long time. I was very touched by the extent of her very genuine curiosity about me and about our species
Awww...I almost got teary eyed reading that. I know she must have captured your heart that evening! No wonder she taps you on the hip or thigh when she thinks she might be left out on a treat. She must be a Heidi daughter then. Pretty much all of the regulars are, right? (daughters or grands?)
I'm gonna go searching back for that entry.
Wish me luck!
Sheri
I remember that incident, but for some reason, I thought it had been Heidi. It does sound like something Dennis would do, as she's always been bold.
I think if it were me feeling a raccoon nose on my butt, I'd have a hard time keeping from giggling and scaring them off, lol.
Sheri,
Yes, most of them are Heidi's descendants. Dennis was Heidi's daughter. She and Cissy are sisters. Cissy was a bit timid compared to the very gregarious Dennis, but, following her sibling, Cissy would also come to me as a kit - and is still quite comfortable around me today (or when she was here recently). Dennis and Cissy were born the 2nd season after I met Heidi and the 1st season that I was feeding her all the way through her pregnancy and nursing. She was part of the 1st litter to meet me as soon as they left the nest to come to the buffet.
Cissy and Dennis had a sibling named Blondie. Cissy and Dennis were very 'tight' and hung out together most of the time. Blondie stayed mostly at her mother's side. She didn't interact much with her siblings and never came to me. Even later when she was grown, Blondie would never come closer than maybe 4ft to me. She loved grapes and when I had them would stand 4ft in front of me staring at me the way dogs often do when they want something, but she would never come any closer. Even to this day I can still see signs of the bond between Cissy and Dennis. Cissy doesn't mind if Dennis comes close to her when she's eating; they shared food as kids and even though they now follow accepted adult rules of behavior, are still willing to share in a pinch.
In that video where Screech is climbing all over Dennis' back, it's the remnants of this bond between Dennis and Cissy which allowed Dennis to be eating so close to Cissy and Screech to begin with, nibbling kibble off the ground around them. It's also why Cissy didn't step in to chase Dennis away once Screech started 'attacking' her and why Dennis was so tolerant of Screech's attack. Whenever Screech got in it with any of the other adults, Cissy always felt obligated to chase the other adult away to defend her baby even though he started it. With Dennis it was just very clear that Cissy knew Dennis would not harm the baby. Sadly though, Screech never was able to understand that Dennis was her 'good' auntie.
Since Dennis only brought the tiny infants to the buffet that one time, and considering that she brought them right over to my feet, I would later wonder if she had brought them out that night just out of excitement to show them to me.
Just in case you missed the story of how Dennis got her name. When Dennis was a baby, I was convinced, due to her adventurous and assertive nature, that she must be a boy. Although she was very sweet to me when she was little, she was always getting into trouble with Heidi, mostly because she didn't listen, so I named her Dennis after Dennis the Menace. The following year when 2 tiny, tiny babies, too young to be out of the nest, followed Dennis to my feet, I was dumbstruck. It was clear that she was either babysitting - and we were all fairly sure no one would have entrusted infants to Dennis back then - or a female. I tried at 1st to get used to calling her Denise, but it was too late. She had been Dennis too long for any other name to feel right. (Learning that Dennis was a female forced me to face the reality that gender stereotypes in our society are so pervasive that even I had been guilty of sexist thinking in assigning Dennis to the male gender just because of her fearlessness.)
Hi KyWoods,
No, it was definitely Dennis. Heidi has never gotten quite that comfortable interacting with me. Heidi will take cookies slathered in frosting from my hand, a monumental feet for a truly wild raccoon like her, and a time or two she reached past the cookie to envelope my hand in hers for a moment before taking the cookie. I never knew if she did that intentionally of by accident, but then my guess is that Heidi does few things by accident. Earlier this summer on a day when I was wearing shorts, Heidi touched her bare, cold, wet nose to my leg for a moment when I 1st arrived at the buffet and was about to sit down. I suspect that she was curious to see what my bare skin felt like, especially since most animals have fur making our bare skin a fairly strange anomaly.
Oh, I'm glad you mentioned the giggling thing. I do have that emotion, too, at times when they do that. They only touch me for a second or two, but in that brief interval a host of emotions from fear to humor to gratitude at their trust in me all go through me at once.
Sheri,
There have been a few raccoons over the years who appeared to come from elsewhere (i.e., not Heidi's). Diva and Juliet followed HRH to the buffet during their courtships and then stayed on for a while after. Cruella and her group who blew through one summer stirring up a lot of trouble appeared to have come from elsewhere, perhaps having heard forest legends of the free buffet or having smelled the food from afar. Bast with her very unique coloring, pattern, and body shape is also believed to have come from outside the group. She arrived the same year as Cruella's group causing us to speculate that she may have come from that group but somehow managed to gain a measure of acceptance. Although Bast is respected by the group and has been allowed to stay, she has always been a bit of an outsider, a lone wolf, never showing any signs of camaraderie such as that seen between Dennis and Cissy (and some other adult siblings). Bast is the only outsider that has been permitted to stay for more than the one season.
And the fact that Bast, an outsider who was so seriously injured last year, is allowed to return speaks volumes about Heidi's wisdom and tolerance. We humans could learn much from her about compassion and sharing the earth. [If she were human, wouldn't you want to see her in position of huge influence, a present day Gandhi?] The animals our species insists on viewing as "dumb" are so often so much wiser than we are.
Sheri, it would be awesome if Petey could become the new HRH; I can see him becoming, in time, a gentle giant like the big guy. Unfortunately, he will probably go through the bratty, raging testosterone stage that hits all adolescent males; and that will get him ousted for sure.
Ruth,
Yes, indeed, I continue to be amazed at how Heidi allows injured raccoons such as Bast and Cissy to return and share the buffet even at a time (baby season) when there are far, far too many hungry, nursing females vying for the limited resources at the buffet. She has some very difficult decisions to make already just in choosing the 4 or 5 females who will be permitted to stay and eat at the buffet (while nursing and raising kits) from among the many yearlings from the prior year including her own yearlings and the more mature adults from whom she may want to chose 1 or two to assist her with security and such. Allowing the injured ones like Bast and Cissy to stay shows immense compassion (along with the obvious intelligence to understand their circumstances) since it means she will have to send others, yearling perhaps, away to make 'space' and free up resources at the buffet for the injured. Of course, showing such compassion for Bast is particularly admirable since Bast is not hers and she and Bast have never even seemed particularly fond of one another, in fact Bast has been inclined to test Heidi's authority on numerous occasions. (Since Bast returned again w/kits recently - you might recall that she was here in spring and then missing for a while - Bast has been much smarter as she has not made any attempt to challenge Heidi as she had been doing in spring.)
I hadn't really thought of it before now. Much of the focus on 'saving' Bast last summer has always been on me for providing food and keeping the others away to enable her to eat, but, actually, that acclaim really belongs to Heidi for were it not for her intelligence and compassion in allowing Bast to return once injured (recall that Bast had already been driven out before her injury to make room at the buffet for the young nursing moms), I would never even have known Bast needed my help much less been in a position to help her.
You know, just the other day I was thinking about HRH and how, since he went missing, no males have been allowed to hang around the buffet. Occasionally, a young male yearling from a prior litter will try to return in spring with his female siblings and may wreak a few moments hazard by refusing to leave when told to do so, but they are always, always quickly ousted so that absolutely no males have been dining at the buffet, or even hanging around, in the years since HRH's absence. That really says something pretty incredible about HRH, I think, since the gentle giant was always allowed full access to the buffet area. But then, we always knew he was a very special, old chap.
Because males haven't been allowed to hang around, I have no idea who the resident male might be these days or even if there is one. I don't know if they use the services of a single male nearby or if each female goes off to find her own suitor among those in adjacent areas. Since no male has been allowed to stay, I gather they haven't found one that is a keeper.
In recent years, in fact, the females have actually become even more proficient at ousting young males quickly, so that I may only see them once, maybe twice, when the yearling males try to return in spring. The yearling males are not now allowed to return again and again making a scene as females try to chase them out of the area as happened with Trouble and a few of the other males early on.
My guess is that Petey will be sent away ASAP next spring when he's likely still too young to be of service and the ladies can't afford to share the sparse resources with him (when there are so many hungry females around). Despite his attractiveness and good behavior, all signs of good genes, it would be best if he leave since he's so closely related to most of the females. However, if one of Bast's 4 kits is a male, which is statistically quite likely, he may be a good choice for the new resident male since he won't be related to most of the other females, will have Bast's very promising genes (not Heidi, but promising), and may even be a descendant of HRH (There's a good chance that Bast with her pale coat and good genetics is herself a daughter of HRH but from a neighboring group of females.). Just a thought. Time will tell. I'm sure Heidi and the others will make the right choice.
Just another little tidbit I keep forgetting to post.
A few years ago someone sent a package of practice golf balls for use as toys for the kits. They were a huge hit. The kits had a blast playing with those things in the pool in prior years. I used less than 1/2 of the bag but not one of those used has shown up anywhere in the yard not even when the landscaper was cleaning up back there and picking up toys. The raccoons appear to take those things with them. They also appear to take the squishing balls with them. I've even seen them carry the latter up into the trees.
For a while I actually misplaced the package with the remaining balls, but I found them in spring and put them on the raccoon shelf of the baker's rack with all the other raccoon supplies so they won't get misplaced again. Some weeks back when the kits started coming to the buffet on a regular basis, I took one of the balls out in my pocket. After serving up the food, I tossed the ball 'across' the buffet area. I was trying to roll it across to the area where the kits often eat. They weren't there yet. Anyhow, the ball being so light hit a clump of grass and came to rest far short of its intended position. It stopped a scant foot from Heidi, a spot where I thought no one would touch it, at least not while Heidi was there.
Was I ever wrong. To get that ball, the one yearling who is often among the 1st out there, went over by Heidi who was fussing even at that moment. As soon as she arrived, the yearling saw the ball and risked Heidi's wrath to go that close to Heidi's food in order to retrieve that ball. The yearling then carried the ball in her mouth back over to where her food was located. She put the ball down beside her food and then proceeded to eat her meal knowing that none of the others would be able to take the ball.
This was totally not what I had expected. I have no idea what the yearling wanted with the ball or what she eventually did with it. I only know that the kits didn't get to play with it while I was out there, and when I returned the next day the ball was gone. Did the yearling, herself a busy, tired, nursing mom at the time, want to play with the ball? Seems unlikely, but who knows. Did the yearling, remembering playing with the balls herself as a kit, want the ball for her kits? One can only speculate. The only thing I know for sure is that the yearling was quite determined to have that ball the minute she saw it lying there on the grass so close to Heidi, and she risked a potentially painful, punitive bite to get the ball.
I need to take some more of the balls out while the kits are around. I keep forgetting though. I think this time when I do take another one out I will wait until the kits arrive before tossing it on the ground. Back when I took that other one out the kits were still so timid that I feared they would run away if I tried to toss the ball to them after they arrived, but I think that's an option now.
Everyone is probably tired of listening to me grumble and moan about the weather, but I thought after all that complaining I should at least take a moment to mention that it has cooled down a bit lately. I hope this is a sign that summer really is on its way out and that temps will continue to drop as we head into fall. Mind you, it's anything but cool here. It's 98F (heat indexed temp) right now, but that's a huge improvement over the 105-120 we had been seeing daily for 4 weeks or more. At least, we haven't had head warnings and advisories the past few days. Yesterday I even did a little yard work up until almost noon, something I would not have been able to do a few weeks ago. Night time temps are very reasonable now, too, making it much more agreeable at the buffet. Perhaps it no coincidence that I've recorded pleasant buffet experiences the past few days.
Cheryl, We are in the 70's the past few days, so I think summer is on it's way out.
OMG! Sheri,
70's! Are you serious? That sounds SO fabulous! We're still seeing actual temps in the low 90's with heat indexed temps around 100F and up. Oh, now I am SO jealous. After the weeks in the 105 to 120 range, I was actually happy with 100 - until you mentioned 70's, that is. It's still to hot to hang around outside, but at least now I can walk to the mailbox w/o expiring, and I can even resume a little early morning yard work - but now I want 70's!
we are in the 70's too. nice low humidity and dew pts. heat on the way back to upper 80's low 90's by late weekend.
I'm getting tons of weeding done... only home for about 7 days... so i hope the weather stays good, though we could use some rain -- over night would be great.
Great weather here the last couple days. Night time temps around 60 and high 85-90. Loving it!
Terese,
Good luck. I hope you are able to get your gardening done before the temps rise again. Those 70 degree temps sound wonderful.
Susan,
Not quite as good as 70s, but still sounds very nice especially since you probably don't have high humidity. You are running about 10 degrees cooler than us right now.
I just mowed the lawn and did some weed whacking. I thought it was really quite nice out. I was surprised when I came in afterward (at 6:30PM) to find that it's actually 93F! Clearly, all those weeks in the 100s have improved my perspective. 93 now seems nice.
Low 80's here, but no humidity, and a nice breeze--we're lovin' it!
This message was edited Aug 26, 2010 7:35 PM
We just went through a cooler spell here, too.
It must be a "northern hemisphere" thing like that nasty-bad winter we all had
KyWoods,
I didn't fully appreciate the effects of humidity until I started talking to people at DG. I kept hearing people on the West Coast saying things like "it's an absolutely perfect 80 degree day today." I would think, "Yuck! Are they crazy? 80 degrees is hot!" Yet I would hear this over and over coming from that area - where it's very dry. I eventually came to understand that in the absence of our high humidity 80F is apparently very nice. Here it is always humid, and 80F is definitely not a comfortable temperature.
Enjoy!
June,
It's very interesting how your weather patterns are tracking very close to those here in the US. Your temps may be different, but they seem to rise and fall in line with those here. I guess, as you say, it must be because we are all in the same hemisphere. (Of course, as you pointed out before, your weather there is very similar to that here in Charleston.) Interesting. I love learning about other areas this way from real people who live there.
This past winter, I e-talked to family & folks on all the continents and compared the weather. It was record breaking cold in the entire northern hemisphere and 15-20 degrees too warm in the Arctic. (also record breaking). I still think that your summer has been rainier than mine by far! This monsoon seems to be just days long rains, cloudy days, high humidity with drier spells in between. Not at all what I expected. I have lived in the deep south and had the every-afternoon-like-clock-work rains, and I had thought that these would be worse. Not so. I have only been here 10 of the 36 months that we are to stay. This has been a really interesting place to live, to say the least.
One of Bast's boys would definitely be a better genetic choice for resident stud, especially with the probable HRH connection. Just don't know how likely it is that Heidi and the other ladies would accept a Bast offspring. But on the other hand, I don't know how much they worry about inbreeding; in his day, Trouble seemed poised for a stint as male of the year, and he was basically a genetic clone of many of the ladies in that day. Now if we could only get the girls to confide in you as to what they look for in a suitor...
We've been in the 70's here too, most days. Not as humid as it had been for a while, so it's been quite pleasant overall.
I found some very ripe, red grapes reduced for quick sale. Got a small bunch. Ate some. They were super sweet. Took some out to share with the raccoons, not a feast like I used to provide but enough for them to enjoy a few. Surprisingly, many of the raccoons refused them. The wild grapes are also ripe now and seem to have produced a bumper crop perhaps due to all the rain. I've noticed the wild grapes didn't fare well in dry years, but this year there seem to be more grapes than the critters can eat.
Dennis loved the cultivated grapes (which really are quite different from the wild ones). I offered her a grape 1st. After she ate that i offered her a cookie. She refused the cookie making it clear she wanted more grapes. It is very rare for Dennis to refuse a cookie.
Bast also loves grapes, the cultivated ones at least. Bast ate all the grapes I would hand feed her but ignored those on the ground. This is unusual behavior. Usually the raccoons, including even Dennis, will not take an item from my hand as long as they already have some of the same item on the ground to eat. With Bast it was the opposite. I fed her the grapes by hand because I'm eager to get any and all healthy food in her to fatten her back up. I actually get the impression that Bast likes to be pampered a bit. I felt that way back when she 1st started to get well from her severe injury. It seemed like even when she was able to eat by herself again, she was reluctant to give up being catered to. I think she had come to enjoy being cared for. Yesterday seemed to reinforce the idea for me since she would readily eat grapes from my hand but ignored those on the ground even when I pointed them out to her - thinking, silly me, maybe she hadn't seen them down there.
A few nights ago I cooked some pork ribs and neck bones, the last of the older meat from the freezer. I like them cooked in collard greens. It's just part of my southern heritage. As they had been in the freezer a bit long, I was unsure about whether the taste and texture might have deteriorated and/or if they might have freezer burn. I didn't see any evidence of the latter, but still wasn't convinced. To avoid possibly ruining the greens, I put the meat in the crock pot overnight to cook planning to add the greens in the morning if the meat cooked up 'good'.
The next morning the 'aroma' in the kitchen made me nauseous, so I promptly decided to toss the whole thing. In retrospect, I probably jumped the gun on that. I don't normally cook the meat by itself that way. That may have been the normal smell of the meat. I couldn't figure out how to throw the meat away. For some reason I thought the raccoons wouldn't want it. I didn't want it hanging around out back to get icky. I was trying to figure out a way to put it in the trash receptacle to go to the landfill except that I couldn't figure out what to do with the broth. It contained a fair amount of fat, so I didn't want to put it down the drain or pour it out back. For a while it seemed like I was stuck with this large pot of 'stuff'.
Finally, that evening (2 days ago), I decided to put 1/2 of the mixture in a large plastic bowl and sit it out at the buffet. I figured I would leave it in the bowl. That way, if no one wanted it, I could remove it again w/o having to pick up all the pieces off the lawn. While I was out there, the raccoons didn't touch it. Maybe I had put the bowl too close to my seat where many of them were afraid to mess with it. I fully expected to find it still out there the next morning.
That next morning when I let Widget out back, I went out with him to see if the bowl of meat was still there. I didn't want him to get in it. The fat alone would be very bad for him. I was shocked to find that the bowl looked as if the raccoons had put it through the dishwasher and returned it. There wasn't any sign of the meat, not even a bone anywhere out there. The bowl was still upright and there was no sign of the fatty broth having been poured out on the grass. Every morsel of the mixture was gone, and the bowl was licked clean. Wow! Go figure! Somebody obviously did want it.
Yesterday I took the 2nd 1/2 of the mixture out in the same bowl. I took it out late in the afternoon when I finished mowing and left it out there. When I got back some 30min later with the buffet meal, it was clear that something had already eaten a good portion of the pork.
Later, when the usual raccoons showed up they ignored the meat choosing to eat cat food. But when Petey arrived, he made a bee line for that bowl. It was obvious that he had eaten from the bowl the night before and was familiar with its contents. He reached into the bowl of broth, pulled out a country rib with ample meat on it, and carried it over to the birdbath where he sat eating with enthusiasm. For the rest of the day, Petey made numerous visits to the bowl and made his meal almost entirely of pork. He really seemed to love the stuff. Watching him eat it, I was SO glad I had made the decision to offer it to the critters instead of sending it to the landfill. Once again, by the following morning every morsel of meat and every drop of broth was gone, fat included.
Last night Heidi's other 2 kits started trying to come to the buffet. They hung out on top of the fence, came part way down, ran back up, etc, etc. They even finally made it all the way to the buffet for a short time before running away again. This is a good sign. They will be regulars in no time now.
You're so lucky: one of the few people who can return meat to nature without ruining the compost pile! And the image of Petey munching on ribs is just adorable...
I bet Heidi's kits are barely as wide as that 4x4 post they climb down. Yes, you have been very blessed to be chosen to have relationship with these wonderful creatures.
When reading your narratives of their personalities and interactions, you in turn bless many of us.
I know that your writings (and you of course) are the reason I stayed here @DG. Their are a few other threads that I am active in. But none as special as this.
Hey! Are you working on that book yet I can hardly imagine the time involved in sifting thru your 3-4 years of notes to select the choice ones for the book.
I do believe that you would have a top seller in the animal world. If you wrote it under some other name would you be able to protect you anonymity and privacy? That would be a big concern for me.
A Hug and a prayer,
Sheri