Usually going away after startling them makes little creatures scoot back out to freedom, but little bandit's mother must have really stressed the importance of cleaning one's plate because he stayed on to polish off the cat bowls and then set to prying and thumping on the main cat food bin. Unfortunately our little library is a bit of a culdesac and it's impossible to get behind unwelcome guests to escort them out, thus we tried to help this little one find his way back through the cat door (his much larger relatives ripped the actual door off so they could fit through the hole) by patting him gently with a broom. No dice, instead he climbed up a short bookcase and twined himself around our favorite stained glass lamp!
Again we retreated, but he just kept going higher, pulling all sorts of things down onto his head in the process, until he was all the way on top of our 6 foot bookcases. At one point he reached up and grabbed the edge of a stack of oversized plastic platters (you know, the holiday ones with various decorations on them for serving at parties) stacked way up on top of the bookcase and managed to pull them all down, but miraculously he didn't fall with them; instead he was left dangling by one little hand from the top of the bookcase.
He was quite plainly freaked that it was such a long way down. We know this because he then started to cry, which in a baby raccoon is a series of heart melting little trills and chirps. It wasn't long before Mother coon came to the rescue and HER comments were anything but sweet! Apparently she wasn't impressed. We backed off and let her figure it out, and somehow or other she got him down because when we looked again they were gone.
I'm not sure if his ratty little tail is normal for little ones like this or not. I don't think so because we've had small ones before and I don't recall their tails not being fluffy. Maybe he was an opossucoon? Or maybe a ratcoon?
All's well that ends well. =)
4 comments:
Awwww the raccoon is so cute! He looks a little like a cat. And it's so sweet that his mom came and got him. The pictures are adorable.
What a cutie!!!! but I think I'd be freaked out if I discovered him inside my house!
Whoa! That would have been some surprise!
I haven't come too close to wildlife like that, except for the deer that used to come up to our back fence in LO to sleep under our pine tree. However, one morning I walked out to water my back yard and came face-to-face with a baby skunk! I don't know who was more startled!
LOL! I would have loved to see that, Donna!
I did wildlife rehabilitation for four years, so things like this are very cool, but not at all upsetting to me. It's the reason I choose to live in the country and why I don't have a dog.
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