Blondie has never been one of my favorites, mostly because she won't have anything to do with me, until lately that is. She still won't come to me, but she is becoming my most unlikely house 'pet'. She and her kits practically live in my yard now. They arrive before dinner and are still here when I leave. They play in the yard, forage in the garden, you name it. For the past few weeks Blondie has taken over the job of coming to the door to get me when I'm late.
As I mentioned, Friday night I wasn't home to feed the raccoons. Saturday morning when I opened the patio door to go out I was greeted by a little, blue jingle ball on the mat just across the threshold outside the door, a calling card left by the raccoons to remind me of my guilt for not showing up the night before. Although I had never seen Blondie's kits at the door before, when I saw it there I knew this meant that one of her kits had been there waiting with her the night before and had brought the ball along to play with, brought it all the way from the back of the yard. (For some reason this year the kits don't play with the toys much in front of me, but obviously they do play with them. I need to take more balls out there for them, perhaps tomorrow.)
So tonight it was Blondie's kit who met me at the door. Blondie was there, too, of course, but it was the kit who stood at the door peering in as I was putting my boots on. I opened the door to look out at them. Blondie ran to the end of the patio followed by the kit. There she stopped and stood upright to look back at me. Seeing me, the kit came back over to the door to peek inside.
The rest of the night was rather ordinary. Everybody ignored me again, except Blondie who spent the night staring at me. That's what she does when she wants a treat, which is always. She stand over at her feeding spot staring at me. If that doesn't work, she comes around in front of me to stand over in or by the pool and stare at me - like in the photo above. Reminds me of Widget. That's what he does when he wants something, just sits there staring at me. Unlike the others, Blondie is never too full for one more treat no matter how much she has eaten or what kind of treat it is. I just have to laugh at her because she will eat one more peanut or cookie or grape or piece of melon as long as there is one more to eat.
Dennis was there but no kits.
Ursula showed up. Her mannerisms belied her unease. She was not welcome. There was no fighting, yet somehow the other communicated this. She sneaked up near one side of me, and I gave her a little Debbie cake and some peanuts before the others told her to move along. After that she hung out over on the outskirts near the fence. I threw her some peanuts. On her way back from getting a drink at the pool, Heidi went over there where she walked right up to Ursula for a stare down of some kind, no growling, no fighting, no sound that I could hear, yet when Heidi walked back to her food, Ursula stood there for another moment or two and then left.
