Blondie in center, Heidi outside pool.
Heidi Chronicles: Will They Stay or Will They Go?
You know how I kept saying these were 'jumbo' pnuts. They really were large, not like sometime they use words like that just to sound good. The same brand had regular and jumbo. Anyhow, here's a pic of either Cissy or Dennis eating one of the jumbo pnuts. See how large it is in relation to the raccoon's mouth?
Now I hesitate to show this one in full, since it shows the big mess we made back there. (I have an idea for relocating the feeding area over a bit and out of center stage next year.) This shows Cissy and Dennis playing in the pool and Blondie playing alone in the copper basin far right. She spent most of her time either playing over there by herself or eating beside Heidi.
Blondie (right) beside Heidi. Cissy in pool. (Dennis was probably wandering about looking for Trouble to get in.) As you might have noticed by now, Fruit Loops were on the menu that evening.
Dennis with granola (again)
And yet one final shot of Dennis with granola
another family shot
Here's the big guy (HRH) enjoying a marshmallow
Cheryl, do you have a "favorite photos" file so you can enter some of these in next year's photo contest?
OH KY.... great idea!!
there are sooooooo many adorably cute photos. those Rupert ones are so precious.
as is the "birds of a feather" photo.
KyWoods,
LOL, that you should mention that! Shortly before this years contest someone said that I really should enter the raccoon pics, but considering that they are taken in the dark and such I figured they could never compete with some of the fabulous wildlife pics I've seen around DG.
Right now I have a giant Raccoon Folder in which the pics are categorized by date, a folder for each download date. I think it was Debbie who recently gave me the idea to make a photo album with a page for each kid. That suggestion gave me the idea to rearrange my Raccoon Folder by name, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Maybe I'll add a Favorites folder for within each individual's folder and possible a single Favorites at the top level with copies of the best photos in it. Great idea.
Thanks, Terese, KyWoods.
Hmm. Maybe I need to reconsider...or maybe I should have listened the 1st time!
I think my personal fav is one you took when you first started giving them marshmallows, with a wide open mouth (don't remember whose) chewing a marshmallow. LOL
Oh, KyWoods, I know the one you are talking about. That was Diva, wasn't it. She always got on a sugar high the minute she tasted the 1st mm. If it's the one I'm thinking of, she had her 'hand's out in front of her and this silly look on her face. Now that I think of it, I believe there was another where I caught one of the raccoons trying to chew the whole mm at once. I'll have to check back.
This one has weeds in the way - yet another reason I didn't think I could enter these in a contest - too many weeds and such.
This is the best close up I got of the face on the big male I think is Trouble. I left the strawberry jar in the pic in hopes of giving you something by which to judge size. That pot is 15" or so high. It is also in a number of other pics so may give a point of comparison. Note the width of his head in comparison to the pot - all but maybe 2" of the pot width is in the pic at bottom. Also note how wideset his ears are, showing the width of his forhead.
He reminds me a lot of HRH (from a distance, not his face but his overall physique), probably because of size. Sometimes I have to look closely to be sure who is who.
Here he is again. This is not such a great photo since the flash caused him to blink, but it shows his width compared to the strawberry jar. See how wide he is at the shoulders, like a bull dog?
Here he is again. With the facial features buried in the grass/dish, the upper head reminds me of HRH.
last one
scutler, That's a good sized coon. You definitely have a lot of photos of those raccoons! What a great past-time. I wish I had wildlife come in that close daily, that would be great!
Cheryl,
that one with his eyes closed... it looks like he could be doing "raspberries". LOL.
gardener,
In the dark, I can't tell what I'm 'shooting' so I just do like the professionals do when taking photos of models, just point in that direction and keep clicking! I have a lot more that aren't usable. But, yes, I do have quite a chubby Raccoon Folder on my hard drive about now. Well, you know, 3 years ago I didn't have any wildlife 'friends' either. Who knows, maybe you will get some soon, too. You have to take some food out back and sit with it every day until somebody shows up - but if you live in an area where big, scary predators may show up, maybe you should skip this part.
He is a big fella, but I didn't get any pics with him next to one of the others. He keeps to himself pretty much.
ROTF, Terese! Do you think he's making a comment about the camera?
Tonight when I went out, I thought for sure I heard that familiar sound of claws on the wooden fence. When I sat down on my bench I fully expected to see Heidi hop down off the fence, but she didn't. Instead, the low flying, loud airplane from ____ went overhead making sounds that scared even me. If a raccoon had been planning to descend the fence that would surely have frightened him/her away. They are accustomed to the occasional military plane flying overhead, but this was no ordinary airplane sound. The sounds which seemed to go on forever were such that one expected to see a huge fireball fall from the sky at any moment.
Unfortunately, and I don't know what the heck the military was up to, but that was not to be the last such plane tonight. Another one screamed overhead every 2 minutes of so. The 1st one had set in motion a chorus of barking dogs throughout the neighborhood. This was not to be a good night for communing with wildlife.
I stayed a bit longer, even after some 6 planes had broken the sound barrier overhead, because between the shrill sound of afterburners that made me think for sure NASA was launching shuttles over my backyard I kept hearing the unmistakable sounds of a raccoon near the fence.
Finally, I decided to try putting some food in a dish just in case. Heidi and the kids would come over the fence regardless, but it occurred to me that some of the others might not. As I leaned over the dish, kibble raining noisily into the dish, I noticed a slight jiggle of the branch in front of me. It was a movement that I new all to well, one that almost certainly had to be due to the presence of a raccoon.
I sat down calling. At 1st the movement stopped all together but then a raccoon started down the fence beneath the branch. I was so excited to see them, any of them, again! It was Rupert. He walked up to the dish and started to eat, and then, just as I was celebrating this exciting moment, another plane screamed overhead sending Rupert running back for the safety of the forest. He didn't return while I was there.
A few minutes later I noticed Snowball wandering about in Juliet's area searching for food. I tossed him a few handfuls of food, left the toy I had brought with me on the ground in front of the pool, and left.
...oh, well, at least we know that Rupert is still around...
That sounds like something that happened here recently. I went outside and looked up, and there were several jets flying in formation--turns out there was an airshow at the small airport right across the river. Scary, though! Maybe that was the case there?
KyWoods,
Could be. The Blue Angels do shows here, except that (1) I think I would have heard about it, (2) they usually do it on Saturday, (3) they usually do it in summer, and (4) this was after dark. The folks over at the Air Force base may have been practicing or doing training maneuvers or something. There was a heavy cloud cover and dense fog (we have a fog alert right now); so I wondered if the weather conditions may have had anything to do with the situation, perhaps causing them to fly lower or something.
While I don't know what the heck they were doing, and the 1st few were scary, I don't think it was any cause for concern, other than the fact that it was scaring the 'pants' off the wildlife and even the domestic dogs for that matter.
Oh, it was dark! Not much sense in having an air show in the dark LOL. Whatever it was, I hope they're done. yikes!
Even though the sound was enormous outside, I can't hear them inside my house. It's a relatively new house and is extremely well insulated. I can't hear barking dogs, or the garage band a few houses down either thank goodness. For the sake of the critters, though, I hope they will be done soon. It must be very frightening for them. Due to the cloud cover I could not actually see the planes but the horrendous sound such that I envisioned huge, house sized fireballs emanating from the things. It was a bit disconcerting for me, and I understand about airplanes; I can only imagine how terrifying it must be to the raccoons. Even worse, the sound got all of the big dogs down the street yelping and howling and barking, and I know that scares the heck out of the raccoons.
On the map, we are right smack on the ocean. The Air force Base isn't that close by road but probably isn't too far away (especially in airplane distances) by air. I'm in between them and the ocean. I think they like to do training exercises over the ocean, so that would put me on the route. Still, in all of the time I've been sitting out there, both with the raccoons and to do gardening, I've never heard anything quite like tonight's 'show'.
I was just looking for something and found this. I don't think I posted it before. Appologize if I did. This is Diva eating a mm with Rupert looking on. (She probably stole that one from him.)
KyWoods,
Is this the one?
LOL ... she probably did. and that look is like, "What the $^%$*^ did you do that for"
or even, "Mom, can i have just ONE?"
but i'm all for him cussin at her. lousy mom she was.
IF she returns next year, along with Juliet, I hope they are better mothers.
Ahhhh, that;s a classic.
almost looks like shes clapping ... "Yeaaaaaaa, more marshmallows!!"
This is one of my favorites. I posted the cropped version of just the kit with the mm (the part I like) earlier, but not the whole pic. I call this one "Dear Lord, thank you for sending me this wonderful, sweet, goey thing".
(Note: to the right you can see what they do with watermellon. It's still not finished though. when Snowball gets his part, it will be as thin as a dried leaf.
ROFL! those are some good sized, healthy looking raccoons. What a bunch of characters...........LOL I love the strawberry one, it looks "ah, good to the last drop!"
Terese,
Yes, she does appear to be clapping. I never noticed that. Cute.
In my collection, I named the other one "Mom, I want one, too" - similiar to your comments.
These photos (the ones posted tonight) are from Aug 07. The kids were still a good bit smaller than the adults back then and have grown considerably since then. To me the way that one kit has its hands together and is looking up into the air, it looks like it's praying; like it's saying thanks for the mm. I find that cute, but should add that I don't want to offend anyone of any religion or of no religion with the comment.
Did I post this one? I like the way his/her nose sticks out. This kit is having some difficulty managing that huge mm, but is determined to work it out.
Thanks, doccat,
By the 'strawberry one' are you referring to the raccoon. That must be the lighter colored one that I call Blondie. She does have some red in her coat, too. It looks like she got her coat color from HRH. She is even prettier now, larger than the others with a gorgeous coat.
I don't think I posted this one either (late Aug 07). Diva and Rupert. He didn't get to play with the toys a lot (at least not while I was around) so it's nice to see him surrounded by them.
glad to see Rupert got to have some fun.
and it looks like DIvas fingers are "laced" together.
and as for praying.... they are praying to Cheryl, the Goddess of the buffet. "Thanks for the mm's food goddess." :-D
scutler those are some great pic's I love having a visit by racoons or one of the many furies we have around here, today the gray squirrel we feed when she stops by, came running towards me when I came up the walk and I was not expecting it and I jumped and she jumped, I am sure it was a sight:) we also had a bobcat, that I am hopeing has moved on, but what an awesome sight, absolutely beautiful:)