This morning it stopped raining long enough for Hogan the Wonder Dog to go out for a whiz, and in doing so he tackled this young raccoon, apparently thinking it was a new doggie squeak toy. The 'coon took exception and leaped up onto the deck railing, where he posed somewhat defiantly for this photo. When I was a boy we had a couple of pet raccoons, who were cute and adorable until they were about a year old, at which time they commenced to bite -- savagely and to the bone -- any loose finger that got in their way. Needless to say, we're not making a pet of this one.
Awe...the racoon just pose'd for you? I love your pictures!
ReplyDeleteawwwwwwwwww
ReplyDeleteVery cute - almost as cute as a cat :)
Cheers
Robyn
Thanks, Caitlyn and Robyn. Now for the Rest of the Story:
ReplyDeleteHenry Jr. (as a neighbor dubbed the raccoon) did not move from the deck railing all morning. Finally I called the animal warden, who arrived with a traveling cage.
"Can't take him," she said. "He looks all right. [We had worried that Hogan might have injured him.] If he were an opossum I could take him. Just leave him there and his mama will come collect him tonight. Coons are nocturnal, you know."
So there little Henry Jr. sat all day, intermittently sleeping and posing cutely for pictures for camera-bearing passersby.
This morning he was gone. Presumably Mama (who lives under the house next door) came and led him home after boxing his ears for staying out all day.
Incidentally, the state of Illinois levies a $500 fine for relocating a raccoon from the property where it is found. Has to do with being a disease carrier (although there have been no cases of rabies among raccoons in northern Illinois for years), for being a garbage-can raider and for an enormous population explosion in the last few years.
I should add: Those red specks on the railing are not blood, but spatters of redwood stain left over from last summer's painting of the deck furniture.
ReplyDeleteGlad you updated us on the red specks.
ReplyDeleteWill I see a coon while upover? Where will I need to go to see one? Oh to be able to stay much much longer and get up to Chicago to take photos with you Henry. Guess I'll have to try and win another trip next year :)
Cheers
Robyn
Robyn:
ReplyDeleteIf you come upover from N.Z., you can see raccoons just about anywhere in the U.S. -- but you'll have to stay up very late to see them. They're nocturnal and, Henry Jr. notwithstanding, rarely seen by day.