Heidi Chronicles: Brrrr!

Starlight, if you are having no bad effect from the splenda I wouldn't worry about it. You are getting calcium form the yogurt which is a good thing.

Such artifical sweetners are beneficial to people who for a variety of reason may need to watch or limit their sugar intake. I drink at least 3 diet cokes a day which contain Aspartame.

If you do wish to limit it, you better start reading all your labels...you will be surprised where all it pops up.

starlight,

I just came back to tell you that I found one in my fridge (and ate it), and saw that it is now made w/splenda.

I want to be clear here. I didn't bring this topic up to advise people to avoid artificial sweeteners. I just ate that yogurt. I do drink the occasional diet soda and eat a light yogurt now and then.

I think this is something each person must decide for him or her self. In my opinion, these are man made chemicals which are probably not good for us. All things in moderation. A small amount now and then is probably ok for most people. I don't think it's a good idea to consume a lot of it, but that's me. You may decide that a different view is right for you.

Splenda is newer than Aspartame and is widely considered to be safer. I have a big bag of Splenda and use it occasionally. For instance, I sometimes add a teaspoon to chilli, spagetti sauce, or tomato based soups (at the end of cooking) to counter the tartness of the tomatoes. However, I have some concerns about this product because the manufacturer indicates that during early testing some dogs died of liver failure - dogs were apparently used in testing this product before it went on the market. Again, I eat a little on occasion but avoid large quantities of the stuff.

Again, I did not bring this subject up to advise people to avoid these sweeteners. I do, however, think that it makes sense to avoid feeding them to animals. There is no benefit to doing so, and we can't be sure of the safety. I really brought the subject up to say that I was both surprised and quite impressed to observe that ALL of the raccoons were able to detect the presence of the chemical and opted to reject the product. I'm just quite impressed with their ability to know what is and is not good for them. I have also repeatedly found that they don't particularly care for chocolate which we all know is potentially lethal for dogs and cats.

In the end, whether or not to eat these sweeteners and in what quantities is a decision you have to make. If you decide to avoid them or cut down on them, there are other options for your yogurt. I love to cut up apples, oranges, bananas, grapes and top them with plain yogurt with a little added vanilla (optional). When on hand, I also add some shredded or chopped carrots to the mix (masqarades as coconut). There are natural sweeteners like stevia, an herb that tastes extremely sweet and has virtually no calories. You can buy this in granulated form and can even grow it yourself if you want. (When you bite the leaves they are extremely sweet.)

Bottom line, I suspect that there is really no 'free lunch' when it come to sweet foods. In moderation, a little of these products is probably ok, but then again, if we are going to limit ourselves to a small amount, sugar is probably ok, too. On the other hand, while large amounts of sugar and other natural sweeteners are not good for us, large amounts of artificial sweeteners probably aren't either.

nanny,

The fact that Aspartame and Slenda have recently been added to a plethera of foods including many items marketted for kids makes me uneasy. Again, I'm not advising that people avoid the stuff, but the recent trend of adding these sweeteners to all manner of 'non-diet' foods is alarming to me because people are likely to consume them and/or give them to kids and pets w/o realizing it and w/o making an informed choice. When artificial sweeteners only appeared in diet foods, it was much easier to know where to find them and not find them. Now, unless you read the fine print on everything, it is all too easy to consume this stuff w/o realizing it.

With yogurt in particular it is becoming difficult to find much of a selection of yogurt w/o these sweeteners. I would estimate that 2/3 or more of the (large) selection of yogurt at my local grocery store contains one of these sweeteners. I would prefer the regular, sugar based yogurt but often end up buying these because I can't find the flavors I want otherwise.

starlight,

The raccoons will eat and enjoy any 'regular' (as in not light) yogurt, either plain or w/sugar, but they really love Cabot's Greek Style Yogurt which, unless this has changed recently, is only sold at Publix. Cabot's is a dairy in Vermont. Cabot's Greek yogurt is very thick. The 1st ingredient is cream. It has a high protein and fat content. It contains sugar but is not nearly as sweet as other yogurts. It has about the same calorie content as other regular yogurts. I think the increased fat from the cream is offset (calorie-wise) by a decrease in sugar.

If you are looking for a light yogurt to eat several times a day, it may not be for you. I actually prefer regular yogurt myself, but this is the clear favorite for the raccoons.

Marylyn,

LOL, can't wait to hear a guy's perspective on the incident.

Ruth,

I guess you are right. Heidi does seem to have an excellent sense of how to take care of her little ones. Heidi has become an odd sort of wild 'pet' to me. I care a great deal about her welfare, and while most of the time I am confident in her ability to take care of herself, on rare occassions like this it can be difficult to sit on the side lines and not be able to help, like when she gets hurt or has a tick or may need a warm place to sleep or to keep her babies. I guess that is a combination of love and human arogance, the love to want to help, the arrogance to believe we can.

goldfinch,

Well, thank you very much!

You know, once I solved the technical challenges involved and satisfied my curiosity by getting truthful answers to my questions, I realized something very, very important. In fact, I learned a very valuable lesson that has stuck with me all these years, that being that if you think you need to go to the extreme of using a lie detector test, you already have your answer. At the very least the level of trust is inadequate to sustain a relationship, and there is probably a very good reason for all that distrust.

I hear you, Cheryl, and I definitely agree; one of the hardest things in dealing with wildlife is the inability to provide more direct, hands-on help when a perceived need arises. It was always difficult for me and, with your long-standing personal relationship with Heidi, it must be infinitely harder for you. And I'm not convinced that's human arrogance; I think it's simply that when you truly care for someone, it's natural to want to help them. Boundaries are always hard to accept, especially when there seem to be important reasons for breaching them. But unfortunately, those boundaries are real; somehow I can't see Heidi letting you help her with that tick, or inviting her to an indoor nest where she could more easily keep new babies warm in winter. Though, LOL, the indoor nest and all it implies do create a priceless mental image... She already thinks you're a world-class forager; what on earth would she think if she saw an entire kitchen and refrigerator??

Charles says you're very creative, Cheryl. LOL

Thanks for all the yougart info. I usualyl buy about 40 contaienrs at a tiem and this tiem I onyl got 8 so wil look for the other kind. Tryign to break my prinkels and midnight munchign habit with yougart instead and get healthy. Just got the kind I was cuz had finally foudn some good flavors and it liek pudding.

Hahahahah Coudl ya just see Heidi if she got in. I imagine her expecting Cheryl to open the door for her. Can see Heidi marchign to tabel and climbing on chair and giving Cheryl one of herlooks and saying , Ok, I here, now serve me and it better be what I like.

Ruth,

I love the image of Heidi upon 1st seeing my stash of goodies (eggs, chicken, yogurt, fruit) in the fridge (not to mention the pantry where I keep the bags of peanuts, marshmallows, cans of frosting, etc.). She would surely be impressed with the human capacity for foraging.

On a related note, I've been wanting to ask your thoughts on the acorns I found at work. On my new job, as you might have guessed by now, despite all of the paperwork, the change of people, tasks, building, company logo and affiliations, email addresses, business cards, and all such peripheral things along with the maddening security hoops to jump through, when you get right down to it I still work more or less where I worked before. Yep, crazy, but true. I'm just a few blocks away on the same campus. I could have just driven my car down the street a ways and kept on working, but it was a lot more fun this way. ; )

So, where I'm going with this - and in my own unique way of making any story longer than necessary - in this new location one day on the way out the back door to go to lunch with the guys, I discovered a veritable treasure trove of the largest and surely the best looking acorns that I have ever seen. The acorns, or that's what they look like to me, are slightly elongated being roughly the size of the last segment of my thumb - possibly even a bit larger in diameter. They are darker than the acorns with which I am familiar, being dark brown to almost a purplish black. These things are just laying up on the ground under the trees in such quantity as to make it difficult to cut across the grounds w/o breaking ones neck slipping on them.

There are even more of these large acorns (although a tad smaller) along the walkways in the front of the building. These acorns appear edible as just the other day I had the very pleasant experience of meeting a large and rather chubby squirrel as I was walking toward the building and he or she was sitting on the edge of the sidewalk munching on acorns. When I was roughly one sidewalk section away from the little fella, he looked up at me for a moment and then without further ado and without even bothering to move off the sidewalk, went back to enjoying his breakfast. I walked past him about 2 ft away. He seemed unconcerned by my presence, and I found him most amusing. (As you will recall, the campus is something of a wildlife paradise, lots of food, thousands of acres of wilderness, no hunting, no way for humans to even go into most of the area.)

Later that day, recalling how I'd read that acorns make up a major part of the raccoon diet, I started thinking about gathering some of these acorns for the gang. I could easily scoop up a pint or 2 w/o making so much as a dent in the supply and w/o concern for taking food from the locals. I was wondering if you think it is worth it. Do raccoons think of acorns as something yummy or just something available? All of the acorns around my yard are but a fraction of the size of these monster acorns and have long since been eaten or hidden away somewhere by the squirrels.

I actually picked up a few (3) of the ones from the front area, planning to offer them to the raccoons to see if they show an interest, but I forgot to take them out tonight.

Just went out on net to see if I could ID the acorns. My best guess is Swamp Chestnut Oak, a type of white oak which has large (1-1.25in acorns) that are very low in tannin and referred to as sweet.

Marylyn,

I have long thought that story must represent some kind of nightmare scenario for men, that of coming home to find the wife holding lie detector leads while motioning to an empty chair.

starlight,

Sounds like you know Ms Heidi well.

Oops!

Friends, I'm afraid there was a rather bizarre accident at the buffet tonight...

It all began innocently enough with this bag of really, really sticky marshmallows. I had never seen anything like it really. Somehow all of the air had been sucked out of the bag leaving a perfectly vacuum packed marshmallow 'brick' where a bag of lovely, puffy white marshmallows had been. For some crazy reason, I thought when I opened the bag everything would puff back up again just like in the space bags commercials. But, alas, it didn't quite work out that way.

The marshmallow glue clung so jealously to the plastic bag that It was all that I could do to peel back a corner of the package here and there - and watch as the sticky, white, goo blob sucked it back into place moments later. One of the kits was there, and I was really determined to find a way to get some portion of marshmallow goodness to her, but it would not happen without a struggle.

Eventually, I could be seen digging into the bag to rip more or less marshmallow sized chunks of goop off of the larger marshmallow blob. The trouble started when I tried to put these hunks of glue down. No matter what I did or how I tried they remained tightly glued to my fingers. I tried to throw the goo blob to the kit, went through the whole 'throwing' motion, but when my hand came back to my side, the marshmallow blob was still attached. I tried again and again to no avail. I tried using my other fingers to shove the thing away only to find it freed from the original fingers and now stuck to the new ones.

By this time the kit had come over to me expecting to receive her treat. Now I know I often offer the raccoons treats from my hand, but I try to do so responsibly. Somehow offering a raccoon a yummy treat that just happened to be glued to my fingers seemed like a recipe for disaster, so there I sat, surrounded now by two (arguing) kits, as another had arrived in the mean time, and slinging my arm vigorously in an effort to release the goo ball. I was amazed to see how the kits remained right up close to me even as I thrashed my arm about ever more violently, snapping it towards them to unstick the marshmallow mass.

Finally, I started to get the hang of it such that with a modicum of slinging and thrashing I could fling a marshmallow blob into the air - somewhere. Admittedly, as the main goal had now become the 'release' of the glue, I had very little control over when the marshmallow would leave my hand or where it might go. This seemed like a minor problem though since the kits were thrilled to have marshmallows again and were more than willing to chase them down and even to walk up under me to collect any that fell there on the back stroke.

Things were going pretty well really. As mentioned the 2 kits argued a bit, but once I got them seperated and on opposite sides of me, things went smothly after that. That they enjoyed the marshmallows was more than obvious, and they were just positively adorable sitting upright on either side of me, each holding a clump of marshmallow glue, and munching happily.

Yes, it was a dream come true, an image right out of Snow White - and then as i was getting near the end of the marshmallow brick, I managed to fling one over near Heidi. She doesn't usually eat marshmallows, but I noticed her watching the kits at one point and figured it would only be polite to offer her one just in case. Much to my surprise, she ate the marshmallow blob. I tried to toss her another one, but this one ended up releasing at the wrong moment and falling at my feet where one of the kits retrieved it.

Now there was only one smallish bit of marshmallow left, roughly equivalent to 1/2 of a normal marshmallow. This was it, my last chance. Somehow, I had to thrash my arm about just right and get this one last blob of marshmallow glue to unstick itself from my fingers at the right moment such as to land over near Heidi. No problem.

I gave my arm a really hard 'sling' with a violent snap at the end only to see the marshmallow thing fly back through the air and land on the chest area of my coat. Snickering a bit at the obsurdity of all of this, I peeled the thing off my coat and proceeded once more to fling it in the direction of Heidi who by this time had given up on me and the marshmallows and was standing over there with her head in the bowl, minding her own business, eating dog food.

Ga-lop! The small, white ball of glue landed right sqare between Heidi's shoulder blades where it adhered to her fur with all of its prior vigor. "Oh, no!" I thouht, at 1st showing true concern. It wasn't until Heidi started doing advanced yoga postures in an effort to retrieve the thing that it all suddenly struck me as just so unbelievably hilarious and I found myself momentarily unable to supress the giggle rising within me. She strained mightily in an effort to make her head spin around ala Linda Blair's famous Exorcist move as she tried to get her nose back there to determine what had landed on her and her mouth back there to eat it.

After a few failed attempts at the spinning head move, she then tried to get her back foot to reach the middle of her shoulders just behind her head in order to scrape the thing off of her fur. The foot fell somewhat short of the goal. Perhaps raccoons, like people, loose flexibility with age - or if she is, in deed, pregnant all those unborn kits may have gotten in the way. My biggest fear was that even if she did get her foot up there, the stuff would prove as stubbornly unwilling to leave her fur as it had been with my fingers.

While Heidi had started out very calm in her attempt to remove the goop from her coat, after several failed attempts she appeared to get concerned. She shot me a guilt-inducing "what have you done to my new coat?" look and then marched defiantly over to the fence to leave. While didn't run and didn't appear to be in a panic, she did look concerned at that point, as though suddenly recalling old raccoon's tales of humans tossing poison darts and attaching tracking devices and such, things she had thought to be the musings of old raccoons with nothing else to talk about but now wondered if they might be true.

Feeling a little guilty now. Trying not to panic. Thinking with all that Heidi has lived through and all of the skills she has aquired, surely she will find a way to get the goop off her fur - or maybe one of the kits will eat it off of her. Hopefully, once she is able to get it off of her and see that it is nothing more than a sweet treat gone awry, she will forgive me yet this one more faux pas.

OMG, I have tears...literally, TEARS streaming down my face. That is hilarious!!

=^..^=

Hi Susan,

Now you see why I just couldn't help myself, couldn't keep from giggling a bit even though I knew that would surely be the wrong thing to do and would likely make her all the more indignant - as it apparently did.

At a minimum, tomorrow I will be expecting to receive a dry cleaning bill for the coat, possibly even legal papers demanding a replacement fur.

The moral here is beware the odd bag of 'vacuum packed' and totally clumped together marshmallows. If you find such a bag, don't open them, and don't let them near your fingers.

Maybe she left in a hurry to get a bottle of club soda. You know, to keep it from staining her new winter coat.

Any way you look at it, it was one of those "Lucy and Ethel" moments, for sure.

You know, I should have known better. I mean, my day started out with a warning when, in the cafeteria line to pick up breakfast, I could not seem to stem the flow of coffee as it overflowed my cup and gushed out all over the floor while i struggled to turn it off, the proprietor stared at me angrily, and pretty much everyone else watched in either astonishment or amusement or both.

Last night was very nice, BTW - and accident free. The kits are really getting comfortable around me now. I took out a loaf of bread and a can of strawberry frosting. I have found that there is nothing quite like frosting to get raccoons to overcome any lingering fears and become friendly. There were some 4 or 5 kits taking turns coming to me on all sides for frosting sandwiches. Sometimes, when I didn't have one ready right away, a kit might walk away, but I was able to call them back, a sign that they are starting to listen to my chatter and realize that I am actually trying to communicate with them.

Near the end of the kits' stay, I looked up and noticed not so much a raccoon as the idea of a raccoon up in the Heidi tree in the darkness. I spoke to her, and she moved a bit comfirming that she was no mirage. When the kits left, she came down. It was Ursula. As I've mentioned before, she is an outcast. Apparently, now even the kits are big enough to prevent her from eating while they are around.

She was over there eating the pre-licked bread pieces the kits had left behind. Feeling for her plight, I took out more bread and made her a sandwich or two. I called her. For a while she went on eating bread and ignoring me, but finally she came over. She was, after all, alone in the feeding area with me.

I held the s/w out to her speaking in my most calm and cajoling voice. Finally, she stepped forward and reached out with her paws to take the item. I don't know if it was my fear of being scratched or slapped by her or her fear of me or some combination of both, but between us we botched the handoff, and the s/w fell to the ground landing behind my foot such that my knee blocked my view of it.

Ursula looked at the fallen treat with a combination of desire and uncertainty. Was it hers or was it mine? Was it ok to retrieve it or would I be offended by such a move? Was it safe or would I harm her? Something about the moment beckoned me to reassure her, so I did. She walked up under my leg to retrieve it. I could only see the back half of her body and must admit that I was a bit concerned about whether she might get frightened and harm me, but I remained motionless. I had expected her to grab the sandwich and take it elsewhere to eat it, but she chose to stay there under my leg to eat. Go figure.

As she ate, every now and then Ursula would lift her head to sniff my leg and look up at me. At such times, I spoke reassuringly and her head would dissapear beneath my leg again to continue eating. When she had finished the 1st sandwich, she stood calmly as I made her another one, and then, strangely enough she/we ended up dropping the 2nd s/w by my other foot where upon we repeated the whole process over again right down to the leg sniffing.

To be honest, from a distance I had long thought Ursula a bit homely looking. Her facial pattern is quite distinct from the others with only the most narrow and rudimentary mask to add the much needed contrast. Now as she stood at my feet looking up at me with that quizical "who are you? Why are you doing this?" look, I could appreciate her own unique cuteness. No, she didn't have the usual raccoon face, but she was cute in her own way. Or maybe now as each of us had lost a bit of our fear of the other, I was able to get close enough to see and appreciate who she was inside.

OK, I must stop laughing and pick myself up off the floor to tell you that yes, it is a Chestnut oak, and yes the Swamp ...as opposed to the ones that grow on the ridges of mountains. You will see those as you travel north along the Appalaichain trail. The squirrels do like them, also other critters, but they are still not human food. Usually the cap has a different look, too. A little more solid instead of in little tiny sections. There is not much difference in the trees, except in the locations they prefer, one swamp, and the other mountain ridges.

The leaf looks nothing like a regular oak tree.

Great marshmallow story tonight.

Now back to my rolling in the floor laughing.

Oh man, I am still cracking up here: the marshmallow story is just hilarious. All the more so because I once bought a bag that metamorphed into glue, just as described; must confess I trashed the bag in disgust. I have no doubt whatever that Heidi was able to scrape off the sweet glue on a handy branch or fence post; and when she recovers the remains of her dignity, she will be back...but expect some dirty looks.

With such a surplus of giganto acorns available for the wildlife on your work campus, there's no harm in bringing some home for the diner. This was a record year for mast crop; the acorns that fell on our property were far more than the resident squirrels and other creatures could handle, and for weeks on end we crunched out the driveway on a solid coating of acorns. Acorns are a staple of fall and winter diet for the raccoons, and it could be a treat for them to sample some from a different oak. And failing all else, the squirrels and possums will thank you deeply. Of course, the downside is that, thanks to the squirrels, you'll have some swamp oak seedlings next year; but they're very easy to pull out when young.

Oh how funny. LOL... I am surprised ya didn't have oons tryign to climb up yoru shirt front to try ang get any blobs and lickign your fingers to death.

Poor Heidi. I hope by th etime she got hoem the kits discovred her gooy mess and gave her a bat hwith their tongues. I think you relaly gona be in toubel if she come sback and has half of the woods litter stil stuck to her. She be havign ninja camolflage on.

Can also goign back hoem and tellign the kits to stay put and behave that due to crazy human waving and failing arms all over the place she now has to take atrip to the creek to get a bath and see if she can get the goop out of her fur.

Laughign my head off. Oh boy you in the dog house for sure. hehehehehhe Don't know if racoosn can rais etheir eyebrows or not, but figuire you gonan get em big time.

OMG...that sounds like something I would do!! LOL

That if she don't get stuck to the tree. Wonder if she wil show up with a patch of fur missing. Sure hope she forgives Cheryl. LOL

LOL

Wow, I bought a bag of those marshmallows, too! They looked fine in the store...sheesh, no wonder they were on sale. We ate most of the stuff, but didn't feel like scraping them off the innermost crevices of the bag, so some got thrown away.
Tooo funny, lol. I like starlight's image of Heidi returning with all manor of leaves, twigs, etc. stuck to that spot. LOL

Sitting here stil thing abotu and laughign over Heidi and the mellows. She really got new meanign put into the words. Havign a Bad Hair Day. LOL

Now that would be a sight!! LOL

Wish I had some of those big acorns for crafts!
You gave me some good laughs tonight!

ROTF, starlight,

I love the image of Heidi with all those leaves, twigs, and pine straw stuck to her back.

Tonight when everyone else showed up but no Heidi, I could just see her sitting in her tree grumbling and fussing and swearing about how she couldn't possibly go out with her coat looking all ratty like that.

Oops, again!

Tonight I didn't get out there until late and didn't take any treats with me. Also forgot to take the acorns - again. I filled Heidi's bowl with dog food and then sat down to wait. Almost immediently 2 mice emerged from the brush area beside the pool and headed across the feeding area toward the bowl of dog food. It seemed the mice had with time become considerably comfortable with around me, too, as they were coming out in the open just maybe 3 feet in front of me. I imagine they knew they had only a limited amount of time to get to the dish before the raccoon arrived to eat it all up.

OMG! Those little mice were a hoot! It was as though a couple of cast members had stepped out of Ratatoui (sp?) and were now trying to sneak across the yard to the dish of dog food. I tell you they were like 2 stooges in rodent suits. They ran about 1/2 way across the area, stopped, stood upright to look at me, walked a few more standing upright and on tip toes (ok, not really), went back a little ways, changed their minds, headed for the bowl again, etc, etc. They really were a riot. They kept going back and forth. Every time they got directly in front of me, they would stand upright with their little paws tucked up under their chins and stare at me for a minute or so before continuing on their way. Then when they would get just maybe a foot fromt he bowl (it was a 10 to 15ft trip), they would stop again, scurry around excitedly and then run back all the way across the yard to hide in the brush w/o ever having gotten the dog food. A minute or so later they would start the whole effort over again. Poor things they never did get the kibble.

Later, when the raccoon were there, those same 2 mice went over and got on the fence where they spent the rest of the evening periodically running back and forth on the middle board of the fence. They appeared to be casing the joint and keeping an eye on the dog food situation. (The horizontal fence boards run behind the vertical posts, so the mice run across one section of fence and then hide behind the post to rest and make sure the coast is clear before doing the next section.)

In time the kits arrived. As each kit in turn showed up, I called them down from the fence expecting them to eat dog food and leave the way they used to do.

Well, they did eat dog food, but they kept coming over to me looking for treats. Whenever one kit would start coming over towards me, the others' heads would shoot up and, apparently, not wanting to miss out, they would all start drop what they were doing and head for me, coming from all directions. They were so cute, but I didn't have any treats with me. The one who 1st decided to come to me would stop in front and look at me with that "say you wouldn't happen to have a frosting sandwich or a grape or something, would you?" look. The others would stop on all sides of me also looking with those questioning eyes. I would tell them that I was sorry but I didn't bring any treats today. Almost as if they understood what I had said, they would turn and walk away to eat their dog food again - only to repeat the whole thing again 5 min later and every 5 min after that until they left - a lot like kids on a trip asking if "we're there yet." It seemed they were simply unable to believe that I really hadn't brought them anything.

It was a great sign that the kits were really getting over their fear of me now, but I felt bad that I hadn't brought something out for them. Throughout the evening the neighbors were making considerable noise, so I was also happy to see that although the noise was making the kits a bit nervous now and then, they were listening to me when I told them "it's ok" and had thus managed to stay out there for quite some time dispite all of the hooping and hollering. Eventually, though some loud sound did send them all running for the fence.

With the raccoons already on the run, I took advantage of that time to go back to the house for the remaining few slices of bread, the bottle of syrup, and those acorns, along with bones left from a small order of Chinese bbq ribs. I figured the raccoons would turn their noses up at the latter but I knew Snowball, Puddle, and the rest of the opossum gang would love them. (Actually, the kits did show some interest in the ribs.)

When I went back out I 1/2 expected that I would sit there for a while without ever seeing another raccoon, but in keeping with the kits' newfound comfort around me, they were all back in no time and were excited to see that this time I had treats!

When the 1st raccoon arrived, I tossed a syrup finger sandwich and an acorn side by side a little distance in front of her. She ran out of the brush, grabbed the acorn, and ran back into the brush to eat it before returning for the snadwich. I was shocked. Apparently, acorns held some promise as a treat for the raccoons. When she returned, I gave her the remaining 2 acorns which she also ate much as if I had given her peanuts. I read, BTW, that while red oak acorns are most common, white oak acorns are the most covetted by animals for their sweeter flavor. The swamp chestnut oak is a type of white oak and according to what I read it's acorns are even sweeter than regular white oak acorns. Next week I will most certainly go out back one day and scoop up some more acorns.

By this time I had given up on seeing Heidi, figuring she was stuck at home after having sent her coat out to the cleaners. I was just hoping she hadn't been eaten by some forest animal or neighborhood dog who had tracked her down for the marshmallow. My other worry, after reading starlight's post, was that she might end up glued to a tree trunk somewhere.

It was about that time when Heidi came running down the fence to join the party. Not only did she not have leaves and debris stuck to her but I was quite amazed to see that her coat was positively spotless.I kept staring at her back in disbelief. There wasn't the slightest indication that the sticky wad of marshmallow had ever been there. (I think perhaps we don't give animals enough credit for their cleanliness.)

I took a slice of bread, soaked it with syrup, folded it over, and tossed it near Heidi. She gobbled it up with an enthusiasm that said I should add this to her list of favorite foods. Since the syrup permeated the bread, unlike the frosting sandwiches, she had to eat the bread, too, leaving only the crust behind. I tossed her 2 more such sandwiches, and she ate both. A minute or so later when I threw a sandwich to one of the kits (some 7-8ft away from Heidi), she ran over there and snatched it up before the kit could get it. Clearly, she really likes the syrup. I made the last slice of bread into one final sandwich for Heidi.

It was then that i got the idea to pour some syrup into the empty Chinese food box for Heidi. When she refused to come over and get it, probably because she didn't recognize that box as something she wanted, I decided to toss it to her, you know, like I often do with the frosting can...but in deciding to do so, I momentarily forgot about the incident of the prior evening. Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to be throwing sticky stuff at Heidi so soon after the infamous marshmallow incident. Seeing the box of sticky syrup coming at her newly cleaned coat, Heidi took off running for the safety (and cleanliness) of the forest.

Edited to add to my list of concerns about Heidi and her coat.

This message was edited Jan 25, 2009 2:54 AM

Thanks, Sharran,

The trees are on the small side right now. I think they may have been planted around the building by the landscapers. It's a fairly new building. They are all devoid of leaves right now, but I did see a leaf or two still hanging onto one of the trees. The leaves are very different from any oak leaf that I have ever seen and are consistant with those shown in the literature for the swamp oak. New leaf buds are already large, well developed, and starting to open on some of the trees. The acorns are long, large, and almost black. I haven't seen the caps. The ripe acorns appear to be falling sans caps.

As for the swamp thing, this entire coastal area is called the low country. It's at or below sea level and crisscrossed by rivers and tributaries. Marsh, swamps, and other wetlands aboud. A swamp 'anything' should be quite happy here.

Thanks for the info.

Ruth,

I hadn't thought about that one downside you pointed out - the factt hat acorns are seeds after all, and with the help of those dastardly squirrels some will surely germinate. LOL. Then again, if they plant it in the right place, I might like one of those trees. The idea of a solid carpet of acorns isn't so appealing, but it would be nice to have all that food for the critters along with some nice shade for me.

Well, Heidi did return - but when I started throwing syrup she beat a hasty retreat. Poor thing was probably up all night last night cleaning her coat and wasn't about to take any chances tonight.

Edited to fix my blooper and turn off bold

This message was edited Jan 25, 2009 2:51 AM

starlight,

Actually, I kept my marshmallow encrusted fingers away from the kits. I was afraid to present them with body parts covered in tasty food for fear they might get confused as to where the food ended and the fingers began. Under normal circumstances I don't think they would bite me, but if my fingers looked, smelled, and even tasted like marshmallows, they might just decide to take a bite. Ouch! No thanks to that.

I did a very bad, or at least very irresponsible, thing today and am most annoyed with myself. For days I've had a rat trap on the patio in hopes of catching any rats that might be in the area.Something has been pulling chunks of insulation out of my house - I see the stuff in the flower bed in front of the house. I figure it must be either a rat or a squirrel, don't know which.

The raccoons and opossums love a good, freshly caught rat and have learned to monitor traps on their nightly foraging routes - even though it has been ages since I caught a rat back there. Unfortunately, since the rats are sometimes difficult to remove from the 'teeth' of the traps I use, they just take them away trap and all. At $5-10 per trap (depending on where I get it) and considering how difficult they are to find lately, I can't afford to loose one after every catch, so this time I bought a small but strong chain with which to anchor the trap to the nearby Adirondak chair. (Just a side note relating to the 'amusing' difficulties of having wild raccoon 'pets'. not related to the bad thing.)

I haven't been catching anything in the trap though. Not sure if the chain is spooking them or maybe there aren't any rats out there. I did use a different type of peanut butter in the trap this time. Maybe I need to change back to the old type as that had worked well in the past.

Because those traps look so vicious, I had always been so careful to always 'spring' it each morning when I let Widget out just to be sure that he didn't stick his nose in it. I would leave it 'off' by day to guard against the odd chance that a bird or squirrel might go for the pb and get hurt. This morning we slept late, and by the time I let Widget out a small bird had already gotten caught (and killed) in the trap. Major bummer. I feel like such a bad, bad person.

I removed the bird from the trap but left him beside it. I've gone out at night and seen the opossums out there checking the traps in search of a meal, so I figured that would be the place to leave him. By the time I went out to feed the raccoons, the bird was already gone. I hate that he became a casualty in my war on rats, but as long as he was already dead, I was glad to see the cycle of life complete itself.

What a bummer about the bird, but glad he/she made some wild creature happy in the end.

I'm not surprised by Heidi's spotless coat; cleanliness is essential in the wild since you don't want your aroma to draw predators. Still chuckling about Heidi heading for the hills when you chucked the syrup sandwich; not surprised by that, either. One all-night grooming session undoubtedly was enough...

We have oak seedlings come up in the garden beds every spring, thanks to our squirrel friends. They're very easy to pull out, usually with the acorn still attached, and they're easy to recognize. I wouldn't mind having one of those trees, either, especially since the acorns are such a hit with wildlife; but know a swamp oak would be very very unhappy in the mountains. Wouldn't mind more of our local oaks, either, if the squirrels would just plant them appropriately. The garden beds are a no-go; but if they'd plant them at the property's perimeter where we're planting to control erosion, we'd love it. Not bloody likely...

The tale of two mice was a riot, though whoever is uninsulating your house is not amusing.

Cute story abotu the mice, but I wouldn't let them get comfortable if ya got two soon ya gonna have 22. I don't doubt that it is them that pulling yoru insulation out and if they gettign to the insulation they wil get their teeth on yoru wires.

When we lived at this one house had field mice and they hadmounde dholes for nests all over the place. They eventually got in through the walls and chewed on electrical wires and ate holes aroudn the electric sockets and got in clothes closets and it was a nightmare we had. Months and months of traps and posions and finalyl took a king snake that got out of his cage and into the walls to clean up the population.

Don't feel bad. It happens sometime s no matter how careful we are. Had some pots outside and must have been soething in them and had a bird try and get whatever it was nd tuppe dth epots over on top of her and by the time i discovere dit, the poor bird was pretty weak. Freed the bird and put water and food down so it could refresh itself before flying off.

LOL.. Poor Heidi. Marshmellow one night and a syrup coat the next heheheheh Glad she came back and was all nice and clean.