Thursday, October 16, 2008

Raccoon!

I've never cared much for raccoons... they can be such nuisances... My earliest experiences with them included coons that would rip open my rabbit hutch in the night and eat my furry pets. I was only 8, and an animal lover, so this was traumatic for me. They did the same things with my ducklings, and I was the one to discover the massacre in the pole barn one morning. They would go down into the root cellar and eat everything in sight, including the contents of canning jars after they pushed them on the floor and broke them open.

Dad started livetrapping them and giving them to a crazy old guy down the road who ate them. "Them coons is gooood eatin'!" he would say. After 9 or so, he got his fill and refused to "dispose" of any more coons for us.

In later years, they were well known around our house for cleaning out the plum trees and blueberry bushes by night, as well as stealing chickens.

No, I've never cared much for raccoons.

When we were on our honeymoon, we camped somewhere on the Olympic Penninsula of Washington and we had coons visiting our campsite. I was throwing rocks and them up in the trees trying to get them to find someone else to bug. It didn't work and I seem to recall something about a bag of bread flying into the lake, but I had nothing to do with that.

I have a great aunt and uncle who has had many pet raccoons and Aunt C. insists that they make great pets! Nathan and I stayed with them shortly after we were married and on our way to the Midwest and we did enjoy watching the pet raccoons, but I remain skeptical. Uncle C. would laugh and affectionately call them "WAAAAAAAAAAAcoon!"

So now that's what we say when we talk about raccoons: "WAAAAAAAAAAcoon!"

But I still don't like them much.

Today, however, I found a waccoon that I can get along with a little better:







He came home from Story Time with me and I think I'll keep him.

3 comments:

  1. Actually, dad caught 17 raccoons that year!! The guy (he was from Kentucky, big surprise!) actually got to his limit with that. Do you remember that those critters would come up the basement steps to eat the cat food out of the dish in the dining room? Cheeky.

    The mask is adorable. I thought it was felt at first. You could make a permanent dress-up mask for him out of felt/fabric.

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  2. I don't much like raccoons either. When I was a kid, one almost killed my favorite cat. I found out recently that the seller of our new home has been feeding them and I am a little stressed because I won't be feeding them and I sense they will go into all war-mode against us. The seller did say that when she had big dogs, they stayed away.

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  3. Katie, I am not a fan of raccoons at all. (The only good raccoon is a dead raccoon), But I have to admit to to really liking your raccoon.
    Dad

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