The Heidi Chronicles: The Story Continues

This thread is a continuation of a series that began here: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/603944/
The last thread prior to this one is here: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/753926/

In Spring 06 as I was walking around my backyard cottage garden late one afternoon, a wild raccoon climbed down the fence in front of me. I didn't know what to think. I was afraid of her, afraid she might have rabies, afraid she might attack me or my dog. I tried to chase her away, but she refused to leave. In time I learned that she had 5 infant raccoon babies across the fence and was desperate to find food so that she could return to them before predators found them. She had grown accustomed to raiding my bird feeder each evening, but I had taken it inside. Anyhow, to this day I still don't really understand what caused her to come to me that day, but she did, and in time we became friends. I named her Heidi. That summer she brought her kids into the yard each afternoon to eat. The became very comfortable around me, and I enjoyed watching them grow up.

This year, Heidi is back. She had a new 07 litter, and we have been waiting and waiting and waiting for her to bring them with her to the yard.

Thanks sooo much for the new thread, Cheryl! Looking forward to more adventures!

Renee'

Very happy to start over with a new, shorter thread, Renee'. You are very welcome. I hope that you will always feel free to let me know whenever the threads get too long or otherwise difficult to load.

eating peanuts in the pool

more peanuts in the pool

close up of the last one

fun in the pool - peanuts still

not sure who this is

again

say "uncle" when you've had enough peanuts in the pool shots. ; )

OMG, is there no end to them?

apparently not

ROFL !! but peanuts in the pool is a fun game!! Great shots.

and about missing the past comments... it was amazing that 4 of us were posting at the very same minute!
easy to miss 1 or 2.

Hi Terese!

For some reason on that other thread when I chose "Skip to new" it only showed the last 2 posts, not all 4; I'm glad I saw them (accidentally) when I returned to the thread.

LOL. lots of pool shots.

OMG! You just will not believe this. A little while ago I let the dog out. Naturally, he didn't return. As I was going out to get him, I decided to take the remains of the watermelon out. When I got there I sat down on my bench with Widget (the dog) still walking around nearby. I called Fraidy a few times. Then I picked the dog up and tucked him under my arm. A moment later out of the corner of my eye I saw something run by me. I did a double take and saw that, incredibly, it was Fraidy!

She ran around behind me and to her [empty] dish beside me. Finding no food there she stretched her nose toward me - even though I was holding the dog. The dog was freaking out, but I kept him still. Fraidy went around in front of me and started sniffing at my feet. I didn't have any food with me - other than the watermelon I had put down nearby. I had called her but I hadn't expected her to "answer".

I stood up, dog in hand, told her I'd be back, and hurried to the house to put the dog away and grab a few scoops of food. Luckily, perhaps due to the watermelon, Fraidy was still there when I returned with the food. I filled the bowl beside me and she ate almost the entire 3.5 cups. She must have been hungry.

While she was eating, HRH appeared on the fence. Even in the dark I recognized his unique face and hulking size. It took a bit of coaxing to get him to come down, but in time he did so, and I gave tossed him the rest of the food that I had with me. He also showed considerable interest in the watermelon.

I sat there in the dark as they ate - not wanting to scare them away by getting up to walk away. As if this "story" couldn't get any better, after a little while I looked up to see HRH, who was then directly in front of me and about 6ft away, sitting back on his haunches in that "couch potato" position with his chest and tummy and everything else on full display as he munched on kibble in the grass. That was a first as I had never seen him get so comfy, nor had I ever expected to. Given all that has happened recently with the poor fella, I was glad to see him so relaxed.

Hurray: maybe HRH has chased off the interloper, or he's moved on because of the absence of second-shift food. Glad you got to see/feed Fraidy again, and awesome to see His Maleness so relaxed around you.

That jiggling of the tree branch while Heidi ate is very suggestive; maybe we're close to first sighting of the 07 crew!

As an interim measure while you're going through the medical tests, you might try a homeopathic remedy that works well for me with sleep issues. Not a drug in the traditional sense, and no morning hangover ever. It's a combination tablet called, logically, Insomnia, from www.homeopathyworks.com. At worst, it can't possibly do harm, and might help.

must have been a very pleasurable evening.

Figure, if Fraidy didnt come the night before... she was probably very hungry, hence coming down, knowing you'd "protect" her from Widget. LOL. very cool.

Amazing! Our coons run off if we go outside. 'Course, they're not trained like yours, Cheryl! It is fun to watch them eat from inside the house, though. We put out corn, black oil seed, bread, and fruit. It's funny how they chew with their heads up in the air and their mouths open!

Ruth -- Last night - 2nd shift - was a 2-fer w/ a bonus. I was excited to see Fraidy again, and really quite happy to see that big, teddy bear HRH, happy to see that he was still healthy and hadn't been run off. That he ultimately became relaxed enough with just me and Fraidy around to sit back and slouch a bit was just icing on the proverbial cake. HRH ate both the cat food and some peanuts; I found the latter choice encouraging since it required him to bite the shells open, and in doing so he showed no sign of distress from his mouth wound.

Thanks very much for the link! I will try that.

Terese,

It had actually been 2 days since I'd seen/fed Fraidy. I had left a dish of food out hoping she might find it but knowing that chances favored someone else finding it 1st. She ran from the bushes around beside and behind me, looked at her empty dish, and then standing beside my bench - at the arm rest - poked her little nose up toward me as if to check for food. Then she walked around the baracade to sniff around at my feed and poke her nose up towards me again. In many ways she act almost like a pet might act.

I find it an amazing "coincidence" that both Fraidy and Heidi (on several occasions) have been willing to come out from their hiding places almost immediately after I picked up the dog. It's as if they realize that I can control the dog. That surprises me; I really would not have expected them to understand that, yet it seems they do. Do I underestimate their intelligence? Hmm, what else do the understand?

Ironically, Widget did not show the same degree of confidence in my ability to control the situation. He was "like", "OMG, there's a raccoon nosing around us!"

I think I've figured out why Heidi and the other are "afraid" of Widget despite his diminutive size. They've heard that dogs carry rabies; so when Widget comes around they're all going, "Eeek, a dog - don't let him touch you - everybody ru-uuu-n!!!

....And then Widget feels all macho and struts all the way back to the house going, "Who the man? I'm the man! Who the man? I'm the man...Yeah! Did you see those guys scramble to get away from me? Oh, yeah, I'm bad..."

ROFL That sounds so much like my sister's maltese--and it's a female! Must be a maltese thing. "Little dog syndrome". LOL

"Little Dog Syndrome" is right! I worked as a groomer for several years and dealing with those little guys was downright scary at times..... I could handle dogs that were bigger than I was with no problem at all, but give me a maltese or a bichon frise or "bichin' frizzy" and I would want to go run and hide! LOL

ROFL--I have a "bichin' frizzy"!!!! Never heard it called that! I often wonder how the groomer does it without knocking him out, he's so hyper.

LOL, tettleytuna, that's one hilarious name for them! I don't have enough hands to hold mine down for grooming. Sometimes I have to get creative and use a leg, too!

As for using that term, well, we are having a conversation about dogs, after all. ; )

KyWoods,

I didn't so much tame Heidi as she tamed me.

My earliest memory of Heidi was one bright, sunny Saturday morning around 10AM when I looked out the window at the medium-sized, brown dog under my bird feeder. Realizing that I don't have a brown dog and the area is fenced, I looked again to see that it was a raccoon. I was raised to be afraid of raccoons, taught to stay away from them at all times, so I couldn't have a raccoon running around my yard like that! Still in my pj's and bare footed, I grabbed my broom and ran out onto the patio to scare it away. Standing at the very edge of the patio and trying not to tumble forward onto the lawn in my bare feet, I raised the broom high over my head and flailed it around while screaming "Get out of here! Go! Gettt!"

Calmly, she raised her head to look at me for a moment before continuing to nibble seeds from the grass. Then I was REALLY mad! She couldn't NOT be afraid of me! I was the human. She was supposed to run from me! ...but she didn't. She ignored me. So I ran back inside in search of something to throw "at" her. I grabbed a can of Cream of Chicken soup, the 1st thing I saw in the cupboard that I could afford to part with. After all, she might have rabies so if she touched it I would have to throw it out. (LOL at how stupid I was back then)

I ran back out onto the patio and lobbed the can of soup over beside her - I was careful not to hit her with it as I wanted to scare her not hurt her. It landed about 2ft or so from her. She ambled over to it, sat down, picked it up in her paws and turned it around as though inspecting the GIFT I had tossed her! I was SO frustrated. I couldn't scare her. She had bested me because I wasn't about to go any closer to her. A little while later she walked back to the forest and dissapeared.

After that for a while I only saw her as 2 eyes shining at me at night from the other side of a shrub whenever I went outside in the dark. One night as I was working in the kitchen I was startled by the sight of 2 little masked "children" standing (upright) looking at me through the back door, a French door that allowed them and me to see all the way down to withing inches of the floor/ground.

Then for a year or so Heidi and I fought over rights to the bird feeder.each spring. She would raid it at night so I would take it in. As I took the feeder in earlier and earlier to beat her to it, in turn would come by earlier and earlier. Eventually she would just come by before I got home from work. I couldn't top that, so she won.

Then one day in spring 06 when Widget (who was just 6mo old then) and I were walking back by the fence, Heidi just climbed down the fence right beside us and refused to leave. I was terrified that she would attack me and claw my eyes out or something. I ran around the yard flailing my arms over my head and screaming at her. I know she must have been sitting there thinking, "Stupid bipeds!" I grabbed a plastic garden rake and began thrashing the ground with it about 40ft from her. The rake finally broke in half. Heidi climbed 1/2 way up the fence post and hung there looking at me. I flung the 2 pieces of the rake at the fence near her but being very careful not to get close enough to hit her. Even as the rake and handle hit the fence and fell to the ground, she clung to the fence still looking at me. I picked up Widgets soft, fabric frisbee and tossed it at her now sitting atop the fence. It whizzed past her and into the forest even as Heidi climbed back down into the yard with me!

I had to laugh at myself then. I was out a rake, a frisbee, and countless other thrown objects and the raccoon was just sitting there waiting for me to calm down and stop acting stupid! Thus it was that with time and patience Heidi eventually tamed me. I figure when we say we tamed something we mean that it's no longer afraid of us, and ever so slowly and with much effort Heidi finally managed to get me over my fear of her. Since then she has trained me to feed her, to provide water and a pool and.. who knows I'm probably still in training even as we speak.

I tell you this to admit that I really don't have any great powers for taming wild animals. They came that way. Heidi is just a very special and unique creature. To this day I remain amazed that she came to me and that she somehow seemed to understand that despite all of my silly protests, I would not harm her. Now that I've told the story, I'd like to stress that for me the moral of the Heidi saga is that sometimes the things we think are problems may just be life's gifts in disguise - if we will only stop fighting long enough to recognize them as such.

ROFL at the mental images...thanks for the recap! You're right, Heidi is indeed special. If I were her, I woulda run and kept on running from all that!

Late this afternoon I went out to feed Heidi as I've been doing the last few days. She was there waiting for me. As I was pouring food into the dish she was walking around a foot or so away. Still bending down, I looked over at her and spoke to her. She looked me in the eyes and then came to the dish looked at me again and reached in to take some food. I went over to my take my seat and wait.

Again, I noticed the movement in the Heidi tree branch as she ate. I tossed some peanuts over by the fence under the branch and tried to coax whoever it was down, but nothing emerged. I sat there wondering where all the kids were. Had something happened to them? Were they "gone"? I had waited so long. I almost couldn't believe the kids existed anymore.

After a while, Heidi left. I sat there for a couple of minutes alone. Then as my eyes panned back across the area I caught a quick glimpse of a tiny, little masked face in the foliage of the branch. I looked again, strained to see. I saw a face, all right, but it was a big face, an adult, not sure who, but it wasn't a baby. Mean while, Juliet arrived from another part of the fence. I saw the face and feet of the raccoon in the Heidi tree branch. It was now at the top of the post and about to come down. It was Diva, I think. She had just gotten to the ground when I saw another tiny little figure coming down behind her - a baby!

Diva's baby was absolutely adorable! It was clear to me that he had been to my little buffet before, apparently having come to dinner after I left each day, and that he knew he was supposed to avoid humans. I could see him looking a little baffled as his mom and Juliet ate calmly in my presence. In time he loosened up a bit and ate, too. He took a dip in the pool. Again, I could see that this was not his first swim in my little backyard watering hole.

I was less than impressed with Diva's parenting skills. Before they arrived I had tossed a carmel flavored rice cake onto the lawn. The baby found it. Just as he was about to pick it up, she took it from it and ate it herself. Most of the time she ignored him, seeming to make no attempt to protect him. Most of the time things the 3 ate peacefully, but at one point while the baby was in the pool - and Diva was several feet away eating - Juliet went over to drink from the pool and she and the baby got into a snarling match. Even as the often nasty tempered Juliet threatened her child, Diva didn't even look up from her meal. To avert disaster, I spoke sternly to Juliet. Thankfully, that got her attention off the baby and broke up the spat before it could get physical.

I had a box of Fiddle Faddle carmel popcorn with peanuts with me. I tossed some gently over to them. A few times the baby ran away scared, having not yet learned about the tossing of food at the buffet. Once he hid admist the tall weeds. Another time he ran all the way back up the fence post. Each time he ran I spoke to him. Each time he looked back in amazement at his mom and Juliet eating calmly. In time he was eating popcorn and kibble, letting me toss things around him, and even a few times allowing me to comfort him with the usual, "It's ok".

When Diva left, she just walked away leaving the poor baby behind. A minute or so later realizing that he was alone, he waddled toward the fence where she had exited. By the time he reached the fence he was whimpering a bit. Bad Diva! Cute Baby!

Well, they do exist!

Oh, forgot to mention, that I tossed about 1/2 of the kibble from the dish beside me over to the baby. Then, hoping to coax him over to eat near me, I put the dish with its remaining kibble a few feet in front of me. In my excitement at seeing the baby, I had forgotten that that was Fraidy's dish...at least, that is, until little Fraidy showed up at my feet looking for her food. Thankfully, I still had 1/2 a dish left of kibble and she was willing to eat in the new location for one day.

KyWoods -- Imagine my confusion when Heidi just refused to be frightened away. I felt rather impotent. I would never, ever have harmed a hair on her head. I was bluffing, and I felt as though she new it. She had called me out, so to speak. Being unwilling to harm her, there was nothing more that I could do at that point. She won!

As she sat atop the fence looking at me, she seemed to be saying, "Is that the best you can do? I have dealt with people who wanted to hurt me, and you aren't one, and you're not very good at bluffing either!"

OK, I'm equally unimpressed with Diva's mothering skills: she must be a first-time mom, and clearly doesn't have the knack. If she only has one kit, that in itself speaks volumes; did she forget about the others and leave them in the path of predators? The little one sounds adorable. And don't give up on Heidi's kids yet; they're not yet three months old if we have the birth date right.

Glad to hear that HRH was able to manage peanuts in shell; the mouth wound must be healing enough to be less painful, at least. And they are survivors, after all; pain mustn't be allowed to interfere with good food!

I have seen many very loving, concerned, and hard-working young human mothers. Diva, however, reminds me of the many young moms I've seen for whom the kid seems to be an annoyance at best. Watching Diva, I imagined her having just dropped the kid and kept on walking, and the poor thing seems to have been running along behind her ever since. She didn't seem to be so much "parenting" as the baby seemed to be following. Instead of Diva being in charge of taking care of the baby; the baby was in charge of making sure he kept up with her, watched her to figure out what to do, etc. I felt for the little fella. If he is an only child - by birth rather than by predation - I thought it wise of nature to have limited the kits it entrusted to her lack of care. She paid so little attention to him that for a while I wondered first if he was Juliets rather than Divas and then if he was lost and belonged to neither. The only real clues that he really was with Diva came from the behavior of the baby. The only positive I could see in any of this was that the baby did seem quite independant despite his small size.

Heidi is a much, much better mom.

I was really, really shocked when the baby had just barely gotten his little paws on the rice cake - and I wanted to see the little guy eat it - and then his mom reached in, snatched it up, and scarfed it down. I wanted to whack Diva with that rice cake.

And I just know - remembering the time Heidi stood ready to defend the kit that got left behind at the bird feeder last year - that if that had been one of Heidi's babies that Juliet had started snarling and spitting at, Heidi would have been all over Ms Juliet in a minute.

Diva is kind of like the moms you see at WalMart whose kids are running all over the store while she browses the lingerie. Heidi, on the other hand, would have them all holding hands and standing by quietly while she shops for healthy snacks.

Yep, Ruth, excellent characterization of Heidi vs Diva!

Heidi always kept an eye on them. The 1st time I saw them at the feeder, Heidi was under the feeder watching them (not eating dropped seeds). When my dog threatened the little guy that got left behind at the feeder, Heidi stood part way between the ones that had made it to the fence and the one still on the feeder. She was monitoring both groups, and you could tell that she was ready to come to the defense of the one on the feeder in an instant if necessary. In fact, I was very concerned for the dog at the time.

Last summer you used to mention that Heidi was a good mom. I didn't realize it until I saw a bad one in action.

In any species, being born to a good mother is a great gift, not a given: we humans don't have a monopoly on poor mothering skills, unfortunately....

LOL at the comparison to moms shopping at Walmart! So how old do the kits have to be, before they're allowed out of the nest? We want to see Heidi's new crew! I do hope they all are ok...

KyWoods,

I'm sure I'm just "worrying" unnecessarily - and over eager to see the little tykes. Heidi really is both a learned survivor and an extraordinary mom. I fed her every day when they were pre-natal to insure they got the best available nutrition and every day while they were "infants" both to insure a good milk supply and to minimize the time she would have to leave them alone to seek food. Chances are they are all fat, sassy, and healthy as can be.

Ruth -- I am reminded of the adage to "choose your parents wisely".

I was in a computer store today and had a woman stop right next to me and scream at her young son. He was just being a boy and interested in all of the gadgets around him. She screamed and screamed. I would much rather hangout with my cats or your raccoons than many humans.