Ok, now for the confessions and revelations.
Ruth -- when you read this I know you are going to "fuss" at me...and I deserve it. ;-)
I haven't posted the events of Friday evening because in order to really understand what happened and why - without possibly blaming the innocent - you need to know about a couple of prior events which I had conceiled.
Here then, starting the confession of the conceiled events and following with the events of Friday evening, are the missing events (remember these go back in time, prior to the pool incident) :
A week or so ago I told you that when I had run out of treats for Fraidy and in response to her continued requests for more, I gave her a couple of starlight mints from my pocket. Here's what I didn't tell you:
Caught up in the magic of the moment and despite my earlier remarks about her "fangs", I, none the less, held the 2nd mint between thumb and forefinger and extended it to her. She walked up, sniffed it, and then touched it with her nose. That instant when I felt her nose make contact with the other side of the mint was positively exhilerating, and I cannot say why. I don't recall which of us pulled away 1st, but after that single moment of "impact" I tossed her the mint and she ate it.
A few days later when I was feeding jumbo peanuts to another particularly friendly raccoon who for now I will call Sugar for short, I was again struck by a moment of insanity during which I selected one of the longer peanuts, and held it out to her, whereupon she briefly touched her nose to it then reached up to gently grab it between her two front paws. While we grasp things with our fingers and thus the ends of our hands, it seems as though they grasp things with the portion of their paws which most closely equates to our palms. This unexpected "over reach" caused her claws, which are long and exposed like untrimmed dog claws, to brush my finger. It was not a scratch, just a touch, a contact so light and gentle as to be appropriate for handling an infant. The experience, none the less, reminded me of the importance of maintaining some distance. I did not repeat the experiment.
I withheld this information both because I knew it was something that I should not have done and because I felt concern about possibly encouraging any of you to do the same. It was risky. I'm imperfect. Both experiences were exhillerating to be sure, but they have also led to unexpected consequences. These 2 raccoons are now inclined to walk right up to me and try to put their noses in my bags, boxes, etc in search of treats. Until you have spent time around them, you can't really imagine the amazing stealth which comes natural to raccoons. Now I have to maintain a constant vigil over both shoulders lest I find Fraidy or Sugar literally climbing into my lap.
I withheld Friday's post because I needed to tell you about these events 1st.
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Last night was a particularly busy and chaotic night. Heidi was 1st to show up at station 2, followed quickly by Juliet at station 1, and then Fraidy.
Heidi knows that I often bring her special treats. Unless she arrives so early that I am unable to setup Stations 2, Heidi will almost always eat at station 2 if it is available. That's the station which is located in the safest and most isolated spot. It's behind the compost pile and only some 5ft from the fence and the cover of the Heidi tree branch from which they often enter. Stations 1 and 2 are both some 15-20 ft from my bench; station 2 is to the right of a line perpendicular to my location. Still, unless she is frightened away prematurely or is in a particularly bad mood, when she has eaten a quantity of food from Station 2 she will almost always come over to check out the dish in front of me and to step around that dish to walk up to me and inquire if I have brought her anything of interest.
Juliet is particularly hungry right now as she nears the end of her first ever pregnancy. She eats everything at Station 1 and, if possible, finishes off the food at Station 2 when Heidi leaves it.Juliet often wanders about a bit in search of even more food but rarely comes over to me. Fraidy and some of the unnamed females like to walk up the "alley" that runs between the row of potted plants and the currently unused and weed infested veggie patch. That alley affords them a sense of enclosure and the resultant sense of protection as well as the potential refuge of the tall weeds in the adjacent veggie area. It also permits them access to me through a gap in the row of potted plants just to the left of my bench. Unfortunately, the entrance to the alley runs along beside Station 1. Lately, despite the fact that they never try to take Juliet's food, she has begun to block their access to the alley, defending the area around her feeding station with bared teeth and nails.
On Thursday evening (2 nights ago) Fraidy appeared atop the fence and was clearly scoping out the area. I called to her and could see her trying to figure out how to get past Heidi and Juliet. Even as Fraidy was coming down the fence, I could already see Juliet preparing to attack her. As I really wanted to feed Fraidy, I continued to call to her, hoping to encourage her to come despite the threat. Instead of taking the alley beside Juliet, Fraidy tried to reach me by working her way through the overgrown veggie patch well away from Juliet. None the less, Juliet left her food and ran 10 ft or more across the lawn and into the veggie patch to attack Fraidy. But this time, Fraidy showed incredible determination, for even as the larger Juliet ran her down and bit at her flanks, Fraidy continued on her intended path, running through the weeds only to reappear as she darted out of the veggie patch and through the gap in the pots to arrive beside my bench. For her bravery, I rewarded her with jumbo peanuts and grape jelly, 2 of her favorites. Last night Fraidy repeated the same manuever to once again circumvent Juliet as well as Heidi and end up in the relative safety of the area around my bench.
Juliet never tries to attack Heidi nor does she even defend herself when reprimanded by Heidi. Still she does not typicall permit Heidi to chase her away. Instead, when attacked she crouches low with her head to the ground in an apparent display of submission while holding her ground. This acknowledgement of Heidi's power usually suffices to end the argument.
Earlier in the day, yesterday, I had moved the little garden seat which the raccoons had repurposed as a water dish. For weeks it had been sitting to one side of the alley way behind the pots. After using it briefly, I was careful to return it as I realized its importance to them. While I put it back only some 1.5ft from its original position, the move left it on the oposite side of the row of pots, and resulted in a major upset for all concerned. It was like if I took the phone from your desk at work and returned it to a table in your coworker's office or cube or work space. Even if you both work in the same open area and the new location of your phone is only a few feet from its original one, the fact that its now in a zone that belongs to someone else will result in difficulties as you attempt to use it. Likewise, even thought the water was less than an "arm's length" away, the new location upset established and invisible boundaries. As such, it was interesting [but disturbing] to watch as raccoon after raccoon went to the alley way to search for the water, even passing the water filled garden seat on their way, then tried to find a way to get their head through the row of pots and into the water reservoir without leaving the alley, and then finally giving up altogether and trying to hoist themselves onto the birdbath instead. It would have been all too easy to access the water from the other side, but that would have involved walking through the edge of Heidi's territory. No one was quite that thirsty.
It happened near the end of the evening. Heidi had made her way over to her 2nd dish, the one in front of me. Fraidy had left, and her place beside me had been taken over by the same friendly raccoon who had taken the peanut from my hand days earlier. HRH had arrived, and his persistent search for, not just food as he had numerous dog biscuits, but better food was causing considerable animosity between him and Heidi. He eventually ended up off to himself eating those dog biscuits but not without first pushing the envelope quite a bit. After a few minor scirmishes failed to convince him to stay back, Heidi finally ran over and dispite the obvious difference in their sizes, bit him 1st on the shoulder and then on the hind quarter. He ran a stride or 2 before stopping to display a look that for all the world was a dead ringer for a pouty face and a demeanor that said, "I don't know why you want to hurt me. I was just standing over here minding my own business." (Right)
Although there was a dish of kitten food beside my bench, it was clear that Sugar was looking for something more. By now, "everybody" knows that I bring treats, and it seems that anyone who makes it up to the bench beside me is expecting something special. In March kitten food might have been that special treat, but now that's old hat; now that's what everyone's eating. Fraidy had already eaten the last of the peanuts, but I had a canister of the dog candies with me, vanilla flavor. Fraidy had shown surprisingly little interest in them dispite her known love of sweets. I tossed a few of them on the ground beside me, and Sugar began eating them with obvious fervor.
Soon I was having difficulty keeping Sugar supplied with candy. There were other raccoons around, and they also demanded some attention. All of this was occurring during the same time that Heidi and HRH were having their fued. I didn't think it wise to ignore them entirely, especially considering the often heated nature of their arguments and their relative proximity to my bench. A few times I stopped shoveling out candy long enough to toss some cat food or dog biscuits on the back lawn in hopes of attracting HRH to that area but with little success. During one of those quick breaks, Sugar ran out of candy. When I again turned toward her with a handful of candy which I planned to toss on the ground before her, Sugar reached up to try to take one, not to snatch it in an aggressive manner, mind you, but just to accept it, apparently thinking i was offering them in this manner.
After that incident, I tried even harder to keep the candy flowing fast enough, but it was not to be. I saw HRH trying an end run around Heidi in an attempt to come to my other side. In a last desperate attempt to deter him, I turned to toss the next handful of candy to HRH. It took only a matter of seconds. Candy canister in my left hand, my right hand free to dole out the candy, I quickly turned back to my left where Sugar was, hoping to get more candy on the ground before she ran out. Quite to my horror, I turned to my left to find Sugar all but quite literally trying to climb into my lap. she wasn't actually touching me as I'm sure that would have gotten my attention, but she was standing up with his head and front paws extended over my lap where she appeared to be reaching for the candy jar! I'm afraid I reacted only slightly better than you do in that 1st few seconds after finding some hideous insect on your arm or something like that.(This because we aren't supposed to touch, so when I turned back to find the raccoon's head and paws extended across my lap, even though I knew she wasn't trying to hurt me, I none the less, "freaked out" a bit.)
It was all over in a flash, but apparently I "shoo'd" her back a bit. For the duration of the evening, although she continued to eat beside me, she pouted a bit at having been thus rebuffed. she did not come up to me anymore.(...until Saturday night at least) A few minutes later, I suddenly remembered that the "candy" contained vitamins and the directions indicated that a dog should get up to 10/day. Oops! I had surely doled out 4 days worth. Of course, I stopped immediately.
Well, there you have it. Again, I've been unsure about disclosing these events. Some of you will likely think what I did was good, maybe sweet or romantic. Others will view it with concern. I have very mixed feelings about it at this time. I enjoyed it, for sure, but I also know I've gotten a bit too close to a precipice over which I don't want to fall. I fear I may have opened a door I can't easily close. I know from Friday's events that I now have to be extra vigilant around Fraidy and Sugar. (Well, actually both of them had already been trying to put their noses up close to me from the side and behind when I wasn't looking. They just seem to want to sniff me up close.)
This message was edited Jun 10, 2007 5:36 PM
