Good name for her! I love the one of Rupert hanging onto the birdbath for dear life--LOL!
Heidi Chronicles: Winter Slow Down
They have to be the healthest raccoons for miles around with all that nourishing food.........well we won't talk about the MM's.......you feed them. Blondies coat is just beautiful. I was just showing DH the photos and he said I should go take pictures of ours...I laughed and said I wasn't waiting up out there til past midnight in this cold weather. Maybe in the spring! There will be the wire fence between us though! Wish I had a camera I could leave out there with a motion detector attached to it.
Thanks KyWoods,
I was trying to get photos of Blondie eating yogurt to my right when Rupert started trying to get to that birdbath on my left. With only one camera, I had to make a quick decision but it seemed a no-brainer. The birdbath shots are so hard to come by, and Rupert is our photogenic star after all.
Judy,
I'd love to get a camera setup like that, too! If you get that worked out, LMK how please. Well, I 'cheated' a bit. These raccoons come by around 7-8PM which fits the human schedule much better, and we are still enjoying daytime temps around 85F, so it is like going out in spring.
We would love to see your raccoons, though! The raccoons in your area should be 15-20lbs or so heavier and should have heavier coats. I'll bet they are gorgeous.
BTW, I was 'this' close to getting a fabulous shot of Blondie trying to perch atop that tiny birdbath and reach over to the bigger birdbath nearby; but the whole thing toppled over spilling her onto the ground just an instant before the shutter closed. Phooey!
Oh, nooo! Poor baby! Is she ok? Did it frighten her off? Awwww.
No. She's fine. Didn't phase her in the least. She landed on her feet and went right back to eating. They are a rugged bunch. That baby is bigger than Heidi now, BTW
Did I mention the day a month or so ago when HRH fell out of the tree? He was standing on this tiny branch of the cherry tree. The branch is maybe an inch or so in diameter. They use it to climb from the cherry tree to the fence sometimes. I don't know whether it was especially brittle due to autumn or had finally given way under the constant weight of climbing animals, but while he was standing near the trunk, the branch just snapped off right at the trunk. Still standing on the branch, HRH plummeted to the ground branch and all. He was only about 7ft off the ground, and he landed on his feet, but he made quite a crash and a thud. (He's fine. He was here last night.)
Glad to hear they're ok. I wonder if they get embarrassed, though...LOL
Must have been like watching a cartoon to see HRH drop along with the broken branch (but of course one never laughs at the king). This no doubt happens to raccoons all the time in the wild, and they are almost as adept as cats at landing on their feet.
Gardener, you're absolutely right about raccoons being vulnerable to canine distemper, and the same is true of canine parvo; so it is essential to keep dogs' vaccines current when they share space near raccoons. Cheryl, the extra inoculation Widget gets is probably for giardia, an intestinal parasite known for causing "Montezuma's revenge" in tourists who drink local water in the wrong locales. The parasite is usually found in water contaminated by feces from livestock or wildlife; and since the coons do sit in the pool, better safe than sorry. A giardia infection is very rarely fatal to adult dogs or cats, but oh what a mess when it hits an indoor pet...
Love the photos, especially the birdbath, and Dennis politely checking for more treats. Their coats are just gorgeous, and the fact that Heidi's kits have already passed her size says it all about their great diet.
KyWoods, I suspect that after falling, they check to see if anyone was watching, and then try to project the attitude that they were simply taking shortcut....
ROFL I can imagine "His Royal Highness" doing exactly that!
"Tonight, after returning from our feast at the talking critters house, we all remarked on the softness of her hands. Not as velvety as ours, but very loving and caring. Watching her from our world is quite entertaining....does she realize we don't have rubber toys in our world...or these shiney little ymm ymms. I am sure glad she gave them to us....and what tree does yogert grow on?"
Our Adventure will continue tomorrow...when we return to the world of the human....
Heidi and Family
Very good Debbie!
Cute! And hey, you never know, they probably do converse like this amongst themselves, in their own language.
Hi, Debbie,
How adorable! It's like one of the raccoons writing their own journal. How nice to 'hear' their perspective on events. :-)
Great, Debbie!
Ruth,
Did I mention that sometimes I respond to posts 'in my head' and then forget that you guys can't actually see the stuff in my head? Sorry, I read your post in the early AM when Widget woke me to go out. Then - after chuckling about the shortcut idea, which reminded me of an elevator (Going Down?) - I got a few more winks. By the time I got home from work (feeling not too good), I forgot that I hadn't yet moved that response from my head to the computer.
Anyhow, I didn't really get to see the whole thing (when HRH and the limb feel as one). He was a tiny limb of the cherry tree on the other side of the fence. That little tree is only inches from the fence and the limb was about 6" or so above the fence. The raccoons often climbed that tree and stepped onto the fence from that limb. HRH, however, likes to survey his kingdom for a few minutes before stepping over onto the fence. I heard the crack and looked up just in time to see HRH disappear behind the fence on his way down. He (and the limb) went down fast and made quite a bit of noise since (being in the edge of the forest) he had to fall through all manner of plant growth on his way down. But, he's a pretty rugged fella, so he didn't appear to suffer any injuries.
I like the 'shortcut' idea though. That's pretty funny - as though the limb were an elevator. Unfortunately, the incident happened when he was trying to go "up". Maybe he hit the wrong button. lol
Sounds like that may be the shot Widget gets, except that the vet said it was for pets that drink behind wildlife (not just raccoons). The vet doesn't know about the pool. At the time the raccoons were drinking from the copper bowls, and sometimes I would catch Widget drinking there, too. Still, as much as the raccoons play in water, they could still contaminate the water even w/o sitting in it; and you are right. I don't want to see Montezuma's Revenge strike my indoor dog.
I think Blondie is the only one who is larger than Heidi. Cissy and Dennis are about the same size as Heidi. Not sure why Blondie is so big. Seems like she might be Heidi's favorite (last year it was Trouble), so maybe she got more food. Also, as previously mentioned Blondie stuck by Heidi's side. While there, Blondie ate cat food and peanuts almost exclusively while her siblings ate a lot of treats. Those treats would have displaced some of the cat food both in terms of appetite and eating time.
They do seem to have very lovely, thick, shiny coats. I have more pictures to post soon. In a few of them you can really see a difference between the kids and Heidi.
Oh, and as for Blondie toppling that little birdbath, the raccoons love to stand in the bowl of that one, and no matter how many times I fill it, they get up there and topple it. By now they must be used to jumping from that thing as it falls. The funny thing is how as soon as they fall from the thing they go right back over to the birdbath (lying empty on its side) and try to find the water they just spilled.
Savvy moms like Heidi probably teach the kids to drink from birdbaths and pet water bowls; it's probably their best chance to get relatively fresh water at some times of the year.
BTW, raccoons are by no means the primary host for giardia; cattle are the ones who most often contaminate the water, especially in other countries. Your vet was probably just being discreet in using the phrase, "drinking behind wildlife:" most pet owners would likely freak at the idea of their baby drinking fecally-contaminated water. [Though, given that most dogs who are large enough drink out of the toilet bowl at every opportunity, this should not be a shocking concept.] Since the parasite is microscopic in size, it doesn't take much waste material to infect the water.
So what if HRH was "going up" when the limb broke? He forgot something, and took the express route down.... It is a lovely image to think of him surveying his little corner of the world when suddenly cast down through the foliage. It's hard to always maintain your royal dignity...
I agree spartacusaby as we raise cattle and they aren't the cleanest animals! Deer and elk are being blamed for giardia in the mountain streams here in Oregon. When we used to go trail riding and hiking in the mountains years ago we didn't think twice about drinking directly from the stream but not now.
Sounds like a wise move, gardener, to avoid drinking water "in the wild" these days, especially given the explosion of deer and elk populations in most parts of the country. Beaver are also frequently mentioned as hosts for giardia, which always bothers me. Beaver get a bad rep on some many issues, but who else can create the beautiful wetland ecosystems like they do?
spartacusaby, Again I agree. We're supposed to be the beaver state and I've lived here all my life and have never seen one in the wild, in the zoo yes, wild no. Doesn't make sense! LOL
LOL, Ruth,
It's for sure that wasn't HRH's most dignified moment.
Sounds like you are right about the extra vaccine. I specifically recall the vet mentioning deer in addition to raccoons.
Ok, now it is officially cold here. We're expecting an overnight low of 30F, but I'm not complaining, not after what I've seen on the news and other weather sources about how the rest of the country looks. Tetley, are you still out there? If I recall your area was one of those hardest hit. Hope you are doing well. Hope all of you out there in cold areas are staying safe and warm.
I haven't seen the raccoons the last few days. I've been too busy to wait around so I've just left the food and run. I just went out with Widget a few minutes ago and was surprised to see that most of the food is still out there and Heidi's dishes don't appear to have been touched.
Thought I'd take a few minutes now to tell the story of the other night when I did see the raccoons:
That night when I called softly into the forest, "Heidi, Rupert" a few times, I saw a raccoon in the Heidi tree. Naturally, I figured it was Rupert, but I was surprised to see him coming down via an odd route - climbing straight down that narrow limb that drapes down over the fence, the one I've shown so many times both with and without foliage. As he dropped to the ground and approached me, I soon recognized that broad head and wide body; it was Trouble, not Rupert, and he was quickly followed by HRH and then Rupert.
Trouble ate at Heidi's station (as she had not yet arrived) while HRH and Rupert both headed for [what at the time was] the single dish in Juliet's area. They took different routes, yet met up face to face across the dish at roughly the same time. As they stood there staring at each other, Rupert tested his luck by sticking his head toward the dish but stopped short of actually eating. Some exchange between them, something undetected by me, apparently caused Rupert to change his mind as he quickly withdrew from the dish, and once again the 2 stood in lock-step eyeing each other across the dish.
Then in a bold and most amusing move, Rupert suddenly grasped the edge of the dish in his hands and began to back rapidly away from HRH and around the side of the strawberry jar, dragging the dish of food with him as he went. It was a very impressive move for such a little fella - but, alas, it did not work. HRH stuck one giant foot down into the dish and with that, Rupert wisely chose to drop the matter and run for his life.
Rupert came over to me in search of food. I offered him the vanilla yogurt and an egg. He batted the egg around a bit, and ate a small amount of yogurt before deciding that he really wanted that cat food. So he went over to the dish beside Trouble (one of Heidi's 2 dishes placed end to end and only a few inches apart). After a bit of posturing (on both sides), Rupert was allowed to eat beside Trouble.
The 3 guys ate peacefully for a few more minutes, but the instant Heidi and her kids started down the fence, the 'boys' relinquished their dishes and scattered, heading back over that fence immediately - and they were gone.
The night before, Heidi had really enjoyed the egg I'd given her. As she and the kids stood eating, I tossed another egg over toward her, but in the bumpy, patch grass it stopped short coming to rest about 1/2 way between us. None of the raccoons appeared to notice it. Meanwhile, Dennis rushed over to see what I had brought for him. I put the vanilla yogurt down in front of him, and Dennis put the bottom of his muzzle on top of the yogurt (the way they drink). He was virtually motionless, no licking, no visible movement. The dreamy look on his face and the way his eyes seemed to roll back in his head were the only indication that he might actually be consuming the thing somehow - well, except for the way the yogurt level kept dropping steadily.
I wanted to toss the last egg over to Heidi - to try again. This time I figured I'd need to put a lot more umph behind it to make sure it reached her; but to do so I'd have to throw the egg right past Dennis' head. I hated to interrupt him, especially while he was experiencing such culinary ecstasy, and I feared the image of my hand coming at him in a 'tossing' gesture - a power toss, at that - would almost certainly startle him and cause him to run a few steps back. I waited and waited, and then I could contain myself no longer.
I hurled the egg across the grass such that it rolled past Heidi before finally coming to rest. Amazingly, Dennis didn't even blink, just went on sucking up that yogurt, the trance-like look still on his face. I heard the egg crack as it landed - having been tossed with such 'enthusiasm'. As it rolled past her, Heidi reared and pivoted as she went after it. Then, as she reached the egg, Heidi turned back to look at me. Immediately, I recognized the unspoken question between us. The force with which I'd thrown the egg had confused her. She wanted to know if all was 'ok' with us, if I'd given her food or thrown a weapon at her. "It's ok, Heidi", I said; and upon hearing my voice she turned back to the job of consuming her egg.
About that time, Blondie, decided that she would like some of Heidi's egg; so she headed over to check it out. Surely, Mom would share, after all. As Blondie approached, Heidi let out a growl that said, "I don't think so!" A very brief and bloodless scuffle ensued where upon, much to my surprise, Blondie was seen carrying the egg back over to her dish to eat while Heidi stayed behind licking the ground. Wow! I had not expected that.
A minute or so later, Heidi was still sucking up something from the ground back there, while Blondie was holding an empty shell and looking bewildered. It seemed - and photos would later bear this out - that, whether by luck or intent, Heidi had somehow managed to retain the egg while sending the aggressor off with the shell! Heidi stayed back there for quite a while consuming that egg. A zoom and crop of the photos would later show a very 'sunny side up' egg - yolk included - sitting on a piece of shell on the ground where Heidi stood eating. Photos would also show Blondie holding a hollow shell. (I would show you those photos now, but yesterday I spent hours moving everything off of this laptop as I need to return it. The photos are now safely stored on [duplicate] labeled DVD's. Although I don't have time to get them out right now, I will try to do so very soon.)
Later, perhaps helped along a bit by the taste and smell of the egg she almost had, Blondie found that 1st egg and ate it. She and Heidi both seemed to really enjoy the eggs.
When Dennis finally reached the bottom of that yogurt, Blondie showed up and stole the cup from him. (She's getting to be quite pushy all of a sudden. Perhaps she's starting to realize she's bigger than everybody else?) After that Blondie licked the cup clean inside and out a few times over.
I had taken one of the new toys out with me that day and tossed it in the pool - the blue octopus with pink dots. Soon Dennis and Cissy were in the pool having a friendly tug of war with the new toy. They played for quite a while before leaving.
--------
I saw them all again the following night when, although I took treats out, I showed up with neither eggs nor yogurt. Everyone seemed visibly disappointed. Dennis just sniffed my offering and immediately turned and walked away...
I am still here although a little frozen around the edges. We got four and a half inches of snow over the weekend with temps in the singles digits for part of the night. It is supposed to warm up some in the next few days I HOPE!
That is just hilarious about Heidi, Blondie and the egg. That is one of those jaw dropping moments when you just know Blondie was thinking "what the He** just happened! I KNOW I had that egg!" I laughed so hard at that mental image that Tessa cat relinquished her favorite spot on my lap and is now giving me that evil slit eyed, tail twitching stare. Oh well, she will get over it sooner or later. :^)
Now for the bad news:
I received a letter from a conservation group. The letter detailed a newly reached agreement between the city and a developer to violate the previously agreed upon 'sprawl' boundary and permit the developer to convert a very large tract of land into another 3600 homes plus 2 parks. The conservation group is concerned for obvious reasons. The boundary had been intended to protect wildlife, preserve land in its natural state, and curb growth which is already over-running the highway infrastructure and creating grid-lock. The group is fighting the decision, but they probably won't win.
Unfortunately, while the drawings I've seen are not sufficiently detailed to allow me to determine the extend of 'damage', that land abuts if not consumes the land where Heidi and the others now live...
Best case, Heidi and the others get to keep the land they live on, but with the caveat that the kids have fewer options for moving out each year and all of the animals displaced from the surrounding area will be coming into their area in search of a place to live. At a time when housing sales are down and still falling, when houses languish on the 'for sale' lists and sit idle across the country, and when already I can't leave my home between the hours of 6:30 and 8:00AM w/o a helicopter, could someone please explain to me why on earth we need 3600 more houses? Have the humans gone mad?
The only positive thing I can say about this horrible news is that, thankfully, things don't happen very fast around here. The city has been planning to put a road through that area for 7+ years now, and so far they haven't cut a single tree. That's about the only thing we have going for us now. Honestly, I've been contemplating a move for a while now, so this will likely prompt me to head for a less populated area. The traffic in my area is off the scales. The road cannot be widened (land trust), yet the city has continued to permit the development of acre after acre along that route such that the commute has become ridiculous and threatens to only get worse, much worse. On top of that, my house is really too big. I don't use a fraction of the space, so why hold on to it? Until now, the things that kept me here were: the raccoons, my garden, inertia, and the pain of moving. I don't think I can deal with 3600 x n more cars each morning, and if the development drives Heidi and the others away, that removes one of my barriers.
LOL, Tetley!
Very glad to hear you're going to get some warmer weather!
I always think of you guys when I hear bad news about one area or another. I'll think, "Doesn't (fill in the blank) live there? I hope he/she will be ok." DG really has expanded my world.
very cool that Rupert attempted to steal the dish from HRH.
the egg tussle is priceless... and to have Heidi end up with the egg. wonder if she knew and that's why Blondie got the shell.
tetley --- i know we are supposed to be above freezing tomorrow ... and with you being south of me, hopefully --- and some of that ice will melt.
Cheryl -- I'll trade my 19° for your 30°
Oh, no, that's awful news! Who can you complain to? I would definitely find someone to voice my concerns to, and remind them of the depressed housing market. More traffic means more wildlife fatalities, too. Have a meeting of local citizens to discuss this.
Terese,
It was so cute to watch Rupert try to steal the whole dish! He dragged that thing (very fast) for maybe a foot - and not just 'away' but away and around the side of the strawberry jar - as if that would protect him. I was truly amazed by his 'moxie'. I guess HRH 'told' him he couldn't eat HRH's food; so he tried to make it his food. It didn't work, but it was a bold move, for sure.
I was thinking along the same lines, that Heidi let Blondie get away with the shell because it was empty. At 1st I thought Blondie had won the scuffle. Until I realized she only had a shell, I didn't know what to think.
Oh, speaking of shells, I forgot to mention that later in the evening Blondie and the others kept taking the egg shells into the pool to play with them. That's the 1st time I've seen any of them show interest in the shells. I'm hoping maybe they ate the shells this time.
No, thanks, Terese. It's a tough decision, but It's going back up to 60F tomorrow. No snow, no ice. By mid day I'll be running around in an unlined jacket. I think I'll stay here for now. Check back with me in July. I'll probably be ready to swap then.
I think I know that glazed look Dennis had. Our dog LOVES homemade cookies. I mean he goes into a frenzy!
I sometimes wonder if developers or city leader really stop and think before they tear everything up. Sound very it could become very crowded for you and very critical for our friends.
KyWoods,
The conservation group is holding a series of meetings in early January for this reason. They are probably one of the best places to start. They surely have more power than I do alone. They've put up a web site, paid top consultants to produce surveys which refute the city's and developer's claims about how this will effect the area, etc. I'm also going to call the major's office. Last year I called to air my grievances about the traffic mess (2 lane road that can't be widened with new homes going up all along the route). During the conversation, the mayor's representative used the argument of not wanting to take land from wildlife (no doubt because they know that argument works) to silence my request that they at least widen the only other route out of here. At a minimum I want to remind them of that conversation and the irony of their willingness to take thousands of acres of wildlife land for more houses now when they wouldn't take a few acres to widen the road so we don't spend the whole morning sitting in the big hwy parking lot in hopeless grid lock due to their failure to plan properly.
This is really, really bad news. Bad, bad news. This whole mess came as a total surprise to me. It's the last thing I expected. MG, they've only recently built about a dozen new subdivsions in my area, all new houses and condos that are looking for owners - and cars. It's unreal. I'm going to participate with the conservation group and see what I can do. Again, I think the fact that things don't happen very quickly around here is finally a good thing. I really didn't think they would be taking Heidi's land any time in the near future. That land was supposed to be set aside for wildlife. :(
Yep, nanny,
It was as though Dennis was in a trance. lol. My dog gets the frenzied thing going, too.
I think the folks in charge see 3600 x $$$(taxes). Apparently, wildlife doesn't pay taxes.
just can't get them to understand. They say one thing and do another....arrgh! Where we live they make a point of telling you that they set aside awhole 20 acres for nature & wildlife. I wanted to tell them that ain't squat. We have Pileated Woodpeckers, which are very large and they require a large area to survive. I wonder how much longer we will have them around if they keep deforesting every where. I better get off this soap box. Sorry!
Maybe if you direct them to "The Heidi Chronicles", they'll reconsider....we can wish, can't we?
Nanny, we have those woodpeckers, too. We like to watch them enjoy the suet blocks--beautiful birds!
Oh boy, Cheryl, that is really really bad news. Hooking up with the conservation group sounds like a great idea; hopefully they can have some impact on the powers that be. The Nature Conservancy might also be a good source of advice/help if they have a chapter in your area. Maybe a petition campaign among all those who will hate the additional crowding on the roads?
Nanny and KyWoods, we have a pair of pileated woodpeckers who hang out here also: magnificent birds. It's actually pretty comical to watch them try to eat from the hanging suet feeders: another illustration of " where there's a will, there's a way." I've ordered one of the suet feeders designed especially for them, with a long wood tail prop below the suet container; hopefully it will make things a bit easier for them.
Great stories, Cheryl, about boys' night out, and Blondie's (literally) empty victory over the egg. Experience wins out in both genders!
Any chance you have a link to the company selling those suet feeders, spartacusaby?
I bet if she pointed out what she was doing with the Heidi family....she would be in more trouble. Around here, the DEC gets really uptight and upset if we mess with nature in any way. They sent some woman to jail in Amherst for feeding the deer in her own back yard. She got warnings, then tickets, then court dates, and ended up in jail....she told them, it was her property the deer were starving and she was feeding them....money from her own pocket used. They fined her at first....and after so many fines...put her in jail.
That is such sad news about them building. I wonder if future generations willl even know what "the woods" or "forest" are?
Debbie
Wow, Debbie, that is truly awful what they did to that lady, who clearly fed the animals just because she loved them. Never mind, Cheryl, don't tell anyone ('cept us!) about the raccoon diner!
nanny,
I know what you mean. 20 acres is a paltry bit to set aside for the animals, especially when you consider how much land we set aside for ourselves (humans). I've never seen one of those huge woodpeckers except in photos. They must be awesome. I only have red-bellied woodpeckers in my yard - although I've read that the pileated ones live in my area. How wonderful that you have those large and gorgeous birds in your yard.
KyWoods,
Here I suspect that they would punish the raccoons, and I really don't want that.