Debbie,
"sweet as anything...then BOOM watch out!"
This afternoon my Mom was walking my little lhasa apso, and one of the mama coons came down to feed...Mom didn't have a good hold on the leash, and he chased the poor thing away! I felt so bad for her, but she came back this evening, along with three other raccoons.
So throwing a marshmallow made Dennis chase after it, huh? Good idea, yep!
Dennis, as seen through the French door, coming to see what's keeping me. (Clearly I need to clean up the patio - some day. Actually, that's my trash bag beside him. I was outside cleaning earlier since tomorrow is trash day.Still a bit more to do though.)
Cheryl, don't kick yourself for not being able to feed promptly at 5. Yes, it's no doubt stressful for Heidi to wait, but consider the alternative. If you weren't there with the diner of nutritious goodies, those hours would be spent hunting and foraging, no doubt much further away from her nest, and with no guarantee she'd find enough food. Heidi knows she has a good thing going: you can't blame a mom for moodiness, or for trying to train you to her schedule (lol), but you need to give yourself congratulations, not blame.
Glad to hear the mm trick worked; figured it was a pretty sure thing, with Dennis' sweet tooth.
KyWoods,
I'll bet that raccoon sat in a nearby tree or behind a fence and waited for the dog to leave, then came right back to finish her meal. That's what they do around here, whether it's Widget chasing them or if they are frightened away by larger dogs barking nearby, people in adjacent yards, etc. They wait until the danger has passed and come right back.
I didn't toss the mm too far away as I wanted to be sure he saw it. I just tossed it maybe 4ft off to one side. Keeping him occupied long enough for me to pour the food was more important than sending him far away.
Yahooooooooo. finally got a cumputer that i could use and sneaked on and checked out the youtube videos' . Oh wow!!!!!!!!! They was just to cool. Now I see why ya want video's. Was awesoem to see them actually moving and eating and doing there thing and boy they sure look lots bigger in the video's. I wanted to reach out and pet them. Am sooooooooooooooooo jealous that you can and get to be aroudn them.
What a thing to see. Thanks for doing the video's as well as the photo's . : )
I happy now , LOl
Awww... that is to cute with Dennis watching through the door! lol
Cheryl, I love that picture of Dennis. I lightened it up a little bit....just look at this pose.
"Ummmm, excuse me...but dinner is late, and I hate to be a bother, but my tummy is rumbly."
Great lightening it up Debbie, now I can see it. LOL I am surp[rised that the others don't hang out at the door. Maybe Dennis thinks he can get the slip on everybody else by goign to the door.
Good thing ya don't got a doggie door Scutler cuz Dennis would be in their partyign it up with Widget all day while ya was working.
starlight - SO glad you got the chance to view the videos
nanny - Thanks!
Debbie - ROTFLMAO!!! I didn't lighten any more because I didn't want all the debris to show up on the patio mat. Didn't want everyone on the net to see how messy my patio is. LOL!!! Thanks! : D
Folks, all heck is breaking loose around here so had to be brief. Debbie, hope you know I'm kidding/laughing. You did a great job of improving the pic so that everyone can see Dennis much, much better - along with the mess on the patio. LOL.
This message was edited May 6, 2008 10:05 AM
Well, if I had known that...I would have just had Dennis in the picture and not the bag! ROFL Sorry Cheryl, I thought you were trying to show that you "placed" the garbage bag there...to show how well "trained" Dennis is...and didn't rip it up looking for food.....he came right in and rang the "service" bell.
LOL Sorry!
Debbie
Finally got caught up on your videos - precious! Heidi is always so alert to what is going on behind her. And that Dennis is just so darn cute!
Ya I was surprised at the fact too that he hadn't or any of the others ripped open the bag. Guess they like havign maid service better. You watch next Dennis wil want his food served on a silver platter and a finger bowl and napkin to go with it. Wonder if he been taught about leavign a tip yet. Hahahahahha
Hope you crazy day settles down and it ends up being a good one. Crossign my fingers for ya though. : )
LOL, but if they had to tip her, they couldn't afford to eat at the buffet as often! I guess they earn their keep by being cute and funny, huh? I still haven't made it to school to see the newest videos, but hoping for Thursday.
That pic of Dennis at the door is priceless! I would not be able to turn him down for anything his little heart desires with those big eyes.
I have to agree with the earlier post about not feeling bad about the time you serve dinner. It may very well be that the only reason Heidi is still among us at all is because of the excellent food at the diner. If she gets tired of waiting she has the skills to take herself elsewhere. I really think a big part of it is that she wants to see and interact with you.
OH -- I think Heidi is a no nonsense like of lady -- come, get down to business, eat and leave... with the occasional 'toss a toy around in the pool while no one is looking'. Maybe this is just the way she is when she's got babies ... but that is the way i see her.... now Dennis on the other hand.... snacks, goodies and a quick game of tag with Widget.
Ruth,
I love the way you put that. Perfect. I hadn't stopped to see it from that perspective. LOL. I feel much better now.
Today when I went out, I was running late again, almost 7, but I didn't see any sign of raccoons anywhere. As I was walking out carrying a grocery tray of corn on the cob, box of cat food, 1/2 order bread sticks from pizza restaurant, and jar with a handful of candy corn, a little blip or smudge kept catching the corner of my eye, but each time I looked for it, over that armload of stuff, there was nothing there. After a few more steps during which the blip appeared for a second in the lower corner of my right visual field on each step, Dennis finally emerged. I hadn't seen him because he had been walking with me the whole time, down at my feet where he was conceived by all the stuff I carried.
About that time I saw Heidi looking all hungry and fussy. As I tried to put the arm load of stuff down on my bench, Dennis climbed up there to investigate and Heidi started fussing louder. Then I remembered the 3 mm in my pocket, reached for one, tossed it back towards the house a ways. Without even looking to confirm that Dennis had gone after it, I went over to Heidi's dish and called her as I filled it. This time she came over to her dish as she normally does. It was only then that I looked up to see Dennis over by the little crabapple tree noshing on the mm with great enthusiasm. He made it back to the feeding area just as I was pouring his food. Perfect!
Have to get to bed early tonight as I have visitors tomorrow from DC. Will have to go to lunch with them so need to get in early to get some work done. Enjoyed all of your posts and will catch up with you tomorrow. Oh, and the rest of my day did go much better. Thanks.
I'm so glad the rest of your day went better!! :-) LOL at Dennis the peripheral blip. ^_^ Lobbing the marshmallows to divert his attention was a great idea, Ruth! I'm glad it worked. :-)
Sorry, Everyone. I know I said I would catch up today, but, well, today after lunch I zigged when I should have zagged, opened my mouth one time too often and ended up being invited to take our visitors out on the town. It was one of those offers you can't refuse. Didn't even have time to feed the raccoons before I left. I guess Heidi was really, really mad tonight - and Dennis probably sat on the mat by the back door waiting. I just got home a few minutes ago and am beat. Had a good time though. And I brought my chicken and fire roasted penne pasta dinner home for the raccoons. It was pretty lousy, so I didn't want to eat it but figured the raccoons would enjoy it.
Boy, they will all be waiting and checking their watches tomorrow (lol). Hey, life happens; especially at work.
LOL -- I can see lil Dennis knocking on the door .... wondering where you are.
Scutler, I need to go back and read these threads from start to finish! I thought of you when I ran across a website and had to find one of your Heidi threads to post the link. :) http://meandhappy.us/ The site was in an ad on another website, just a crazy way to find it, but I'm glad I did!
I went out last night around midnight and left about 1/2 the usual cat food along with the large plate of pasta with cheese, veggies, and chicken in case anyone showed up for a late night snack or breakfast. It was all gone this morning.
Thanks for the link, gardenwife. wil have to check it out after work.
Gardenwife, very cute link! Thanks for sharing.
Cheryl -- hope today went well for you... work and the critter feedings.
off to bed -- and i'll catch up in the AM.
OH forgot to add....... Hope Heidi isn't ticked off at you for missing last evenings 'late afternoon buffet'.... and was appeased by the midnight offering.
This message was edited May 8, 2008 10:19 PM
starlight,
I was really glad to hear that you had a chance to view the videos. Maybe those who have dialup and don't have regular access to a computer from which to view the videos right away could think of them as a treat that is waiting for them when they do get the chance. Almost everybody is bound to get near a computer with high speed access now and then, whether at the library, schools, colleges, friends homes, etc.
As for having the opportunity to sit near the raccoons and watch them (Dennis is the only one I can pet.), I'll bet you could do it, too, if you really wanted to. It takes a while and is slow going at 1st. This is the culmination of 2yrs of 'working' with them.
If you have a spot outside, preferably away from the house, where you feel safe, just take a dish of food out there and then sit down maybe 20 or 30 ft away. It's ok to have outside lights on, spotlights, floodlights, etc. Do that a few nights a week. Just sit for a few minutes, whatever feels right to you. They may not come out and eat while you are there right away but will start to get accustomed to your presence and in time will probably begin to edge over to the food with you there. Once they start to come out and eat with you farther away like that, then just start to move your seat a few inches closer (before they arrive) incrementally. Each time they get used to the new position, move a smidgen closer.
starlight,
Sometimes one of the others will come up to the area around the house to looks around and will maybe walk quickly past the door, but I think Dennis is the only one who is comfortable enough to come up and peek inside.
LOL. For sure, if I had a doggy door Dennis would be in the house all of the time. I have no doubt. When I 1st moved here I was hoping to have one so my dog could go out into the fenced backyard whenever she (at the time) wanted, but the French doors presented a problem. Even if it would be possible to install a doggy door in a French door, I don't think it would be advisable as it would surely destroy the look. For a while I even had plans to add a regular door on the back of the mud room which leads from the garage to the kitchen as that outer wall is also within the fenced area. I figured I could then add the doggy door in that door. I hesitated at the time only because it would require removal of the lovely dwarf magnolia that is planted there where the house forms an 'inner corner' - and all of the hostas that surround it. Once I learned (from reading about such things on DG) that raccoons often use doggy doors to gain entrance to houses, I was glad I hadn't invested in one, and I realized that as long as I live here the convenience of a doggy door is out of the question for me.
BTW, there is this positively adorable video on utube (shot from inside the house) of a raccoon lifting the doggy door, peaking inside, and then quite unexpectedly reaching inside to grab the door mat, yank it through the door, and run off with it. LOL. I love that video. I wonder if he/she wanted the mat for bedding, warmth, maybe for babies. Stealing the mat was the last thing I expected. (If anyone wants to see it and needs a link, LMK as I have it marked as a favorite.)
Cheryl -- I'd love to see that video clip.
ROFL, me, too!
Make that 3!!
LOL, Debbie,
The garbage bag was the least of my worries. I was trying to conceal the ton of plant matter on the mat outside - the stuff that clearly shows I haven't swept out there or shaken the mat in a, ehem, day or so. : )
I just thought that was too funny. I thought I was getting away with something, with the debris all cloaked in darkness that way. When I saw that you had fixed that for me, I just laughed and laughed. I couldn't keep that 'joke' to myself. Just had to share it with you.
Oh, I don't think Dennis is interested in anything in the bag. When he comes up to the door he's dreaming of marshmallows, peeps, grapes, yogurt, and such. He usually doesn't mess with anything on the patio - except last fall when he used to dig up those iris rhizomes I'd stuck in the large pot on the patio for lack of room and time to plant them properly. I had $100 or more invested in them and had barely managed to stuff them in the pot in December or so. I was afraid they would go dormant before they had a chance to root. Later when I saw that they had begun to form roots I was, of course, happy to think they might survive, after all.
Then Dennis showed up to dig them up every day or so. I had left a big cache pot beside them on the patio. The cache pot had filled with rain water and we all know how much raccoons love to play with things in water; so almost every night I'd walk out to find one or more of my rhizomes floating in the pot of water. I can't tell you how many times I planted and replanted some of those poor iris. Other times I'd walk out to find one lying on the patio, it's newly established and now unearthed and bare feeder roots shivering in the night air. And of all the iris out there, for some reason he seemed most fascinated with the dwarf iris Dot Com which was probably the one I wanted most. It's such a tiny plant to begin with and growers always seem to send such a tiny piece that will run out of energy and die before rooting if you aren't careful. I had lost 2 in previous years and was so determined to get one to grow. I had been so excited to see that this one had taken root and was making new growth - before Dennis started digging it up every night to play with it. But other than the iris, he never seems to bother anything - so far.
Ok, going to get it right now. Just make sure you aren't drinking a beverage when you view it - for the sake of the keyboard.
Oh, NO! It's marked as unavailable! The user has been suspended! : (
Ok, I found it on mySpace: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=32891750
Found it on YouTube. Looks like they put it back under a different name. The original had a 5 star rating with 273 ratings: http://youtube.com/watch?v=pQPDy3nGiP8&feature=related
That was so cute!! what a cute lil bugger.
goldfinch,
Glad you had a chance to view the videos - esp since I have more to post when time allows.
You can tell that Heidi is so much more mature than most of the others. She really does keep her senses tuned to everything around her while the others play and squabble and such. She keeps an eye and ear out for other raccoons approaching from the forest, too, in addition to watching out for the kits when they are in the tree; so it's difficult sometimes to tell which is which.
Terese,
I think what I like about that one is it doesn't appear to be staged, just natural, and the raccoon is on 'candid camera'. You get to see what he/she would do with no one looking. I like the way he/she peeks in, then goes in farther and looks around - and then the finale when he snatches the rug.
OH -- and I just live the lil "hand" reaching around in there blindly til it finds the lil rug.
and LOVE the homeowners response!!
