Orphans Update

Those two baby raccoons who first appeared in our back yard in April were indeed orphans, so I am the designated deliverer of daily rations.  But, no, they have not become pets (except in our emotions), and they retain a healthy fear of me.  They do often come scurrying when I announce that dinner is being served, only to stop short at the sight of me and hastily retreat, then turn again and head back toward the alluring food despite the terrifying giant lurking over it.  Finally when I have moved what they perceive as a safe distance away, they rush up and begin popping grapes into their mouths, grapes being their absolutely favorite edible. They don't even glance at the other foodstuffs until the grapes are all gone.  They also get a scoop of puppy chow each day and a selection of whatever other fruit might be on hand. Vegetables they aren't fond of.  Recently I've started giving them a little dish of full-fat yogurt with honey because they  don't seem to be growing all that much, and we thought perhaps they needed a nutritional boost.

They moved out of their lumber abode about a month ago and presently are living under our old car.  Yes, a non-running old car – how white trash is that? – but, really, we are going to donate it to our PBS station, although, now, of course, we have to wait until the babies are no longer living there. You ought to see how cute it is when a little head pokes out from under the wheel well and then a tiny body shimmies down the tire.  They come out only after dusk now, so these are probably my last photos of them.  We hope they'll eventually join the raccoon society of the neighborhood, although we may have set their culinary standards a bit high.

Orphans?

While out gardening Monday I kept hearing a low trilling sound which I thought must be some sort of bird. Then suddenly I spied two little furry bodies clambering unsteadily over the rocks of the artificial stream that feeds our fishpond.  Baby raccoons!  Only an arm's length away from me, they finally registered my presence and retreated under some lumber stacked back behind the workshop.  Could they be orphans?  The question arose because, to put it as delicately as I can, something "passed" beneath our house, a fact that became pungently obvious late Saturday.  However, a web site informed us that raccoon babies will venture out by themselves in the daytime while their mama is sleeping, so apparent orphans may not be so.  We did offer cat chow which they eagerly consumed, disappearing shortly after into their lumber for the rest of the day.  On Tuesday they put in no appearance, and we assumed they were gone.  Then once again today while I was gardening, I heard that by-now distinctive trilling sound and there they were!

This time, after their cat chow repast, they hung out by the stream, once even venturing around the corner into the open door of the workshop, all the while trilling to each other.  They climbed down into the shallow stream bed, explored around the rocks and the flower pots, and had a good long nap cuddled up together.  Cuteness off the Richter scale!  And does it cut into the amount of gardening you can get done when you have to snatch up your camera and go have a peek at them every few minutes.  As long as I moved silently and smoothly, I could get quite close to them.  It was all I could do not to touch a finger to their fur.  Finally late in the afternoon, they roused themselves, had another bite to eat and retired once again into their lumber abode.  If they are orphans, they seem to be surviving.  I added grapes and apple to their menu; tomorrow I'll see what else they might enjoy.