Raccoon Stories (loosly related to raccoons)

Tonight Rachel, Kate, and I had a big ice cream sundae fest. I got all the fixings at the store and we each made our own creation. Mine with tons of whipped cream. Rachel had plenty of chocolate sauce. Kate emptied the container of sprinkles. And, as we enjoyed our treats, the conversation turned to raccoons. As I told raccoon stories, I realized that I have quiet a few. Here is a selection...

1) One night last summer (July 28, 2008 - I know because I mentioned this story to my friend, Faith, that week and I just looked up the e-mail to check the date.) I was watching TV with the windows open. Everyone else was asleep. Our dog, Jane, was on my bed with me. I heard a noise outside. It sounded like something heavy falling on the concrete outside our window. Jane's ears perked up. I looked at the window. I heard it again. It sounded like something big jumped up and then landed heavily on the concrete outside our window. Jane's ears remained perked up, but she pulled her head down into her shoulders. (Which she does when she's trying to appear small or hide.) I heard it a third time. Yep, something is outside jumping up toward the window. Something big. As I stared at the open window I heard a sound that could only be an animal trying to climb up the brick side of our house. I gasped. Jane made a sound like, "grrrr." Whatever was outside made a sound like, "GGGRRRRRRRRR!!!!!" I jumped up and closed the windows. Then I ran through the house closing all the windows. Then I went back to watching TV.

2) One night we were walking home from a very fun party at the Holleman's house and we saw a baby raccoon in a tree. It was so, so adorable. It was only a few feet from us and we probably could have scooped it up. The kids were really tempted to reach out, but Rachel knows that petting a raccoon is a bad idea. (That will be story #3.) We looked at him for a few minutes and then moved on. As a mom I sort of felt a little pull at my heart because both my girls are such animal lovers and they really wanted to snuggle that little raccoon. But, right down the street we came to the glass door of a hair salon where a large rabbit was sitting inside. I showed him to the girls and they were kneeling by the glass looking at the rabbit when the owner of the salon, and the rabbit, came over and opened the door. She invited us in and let the girls pet and hold the very friendly rabbit. It was so generous of her. It was late and I'm sure she had work to finish, but she visited with us for a while and the girls got to pet a snugly animal.

3) One time Rachel's friend came across a sleeping raccoon in the park near our house. He was curious and reached out to pet it. He got bit. He had to get rabies shots. He is still one of the smartest kids I've ever known. Probably because he's so curious. When he's head of the WHO, I bet he'll develop a single dose pill to treat rabies. (My spell checker wants to change rabies to rabbis. Wouldn't it be funny if someone developed a pill to treat rabbis? What would it do?)

4) Last week at work we had a skunk trap. Our executive director discovered that a skunk had built a nest near her office. That's not a good place for a skunk to make his home. So, we called some guy who set a trap to catch the skunk and then move it to a good place. But, on Friday morning the preschool director discovered a small raccoon in the skunk trap. I felt really sad for that raccoon all day because the guy didn't come let him loose until mid-afternoon and the raccoon looked really scared in that cage. In the cold drizzling rain. During the day. I hope he found something yummy to eat Friday night.

5) Once, when Rachel was about 3 or 4 years old, she was coloring in the living room of "the red house" and she said, "Look at that raccoon." (The red house had big floor to ceiling windows that faced our back yard. Amazing room.) I said, "Raccoons only come out at night." Rachel said, "Then what's that?" I looked and said, "Oh. That's a raccoon." And it was. It was the biggest raccoon I'd ever seen. It was bigger than most "medium" sized dogs. For those of you who know the dogs I know, it was bigger than Abby or Precious or Rocky. I think it might have been bigger than Freddy Mac. And almost as big as Marley. And the raccoon was on our patio staring right in the windows at us. Only a single pane of glass separated us. And then the raccoon started vomiting on the concrete. Now, you don't have to be an animal expert to know that when a nocturnal animal is out during the day; it's ill. And when it comes up close to humans; it's ill. But, in case there was any question in my mind. It started vomiting. So, I called animal control and they said they would come but it would take a while. They asked if I could keep the raccoon in my yard. I said, "No. I'm not going out there at all - to scare it off or close the gate." Then I called our landlords because their dog (Precious, mentioned above) often came into our yard and I wanted to warn them to keep her home. Then I called our neighbors who had four little girls that frequently played in their back yard. Then we waited. Rachel and I watched that raccoon for a long time until the animal control guy came. He caught it and took it away. He said it had distemper.

Next time... bird stories...