My Backyard - Page 5

This evening (7/7/02), we had a record five raccoons out there — one big, four small. Presumably, they were a mommy and her kids. At one point, the entire family was at the trough, with Jackie the Cat looking on from about eight feet away. By the time I grabbed my Nikon, the raccoons were dining two at a time, so I only got this shot of one adult and one child before they all departed. So I came up here and posted the above pic...

Then, a half-hour later, I went back downstairs and found the whole tribe was back and converging on the Friskies. Interestingly, the adult raccoon (the mother, I presume) rarely took her eyes off me while the kids never paid any attention to the big guy or the camera strobe. Mama would watch but keep eating until something — usually a noise from the street — alarmed her and she'd give some sort of signal for them to all flee. Then, after a minute or two, she would creep back to the dish and somehow signal the kids that the coast was clear.

Here's a shot of of the mother (at left) and three of the kids. The fourth child is just barely visible on the other side of Mom. While dining from the dish, the raccoons often "wash" the food in the water dish next to it. Other times, they carry the food over to my swimming pool and dip it there. So there's your recipe tip for today: Friskies Chef's Blend with a side of chlorine. Yum.

This is from a few nights later. Mom, of course, is the one staring at me...though the kids are beginning to notice, as well. All four youngsters accompanied her on this journey though, this time, I was unable to get all of them in the same shot at once. It is said that the directors of the early Marx Brothers movies had the same problem.