FACE TO FACE WITH A RACCOON

We have five feeders hanging on our porch…for the birds who frequent there (and the occasional squirrels…who have no idea what it means to share.) During the day while sitting on the porch..we love to watch birds come and go. So many of these birds are regulars…ones we’ve come to know. We bring these feeders in once the sun has set and the sky is devoid of light but we leave one feeder hanging…for the raccoon who comes at night. He usually comes when we’re asleep…sneaking along the rail in the back stopping at the feeder for his nutritious evening snack. We’ve had this wonderful relationship.…which all summer we’ve been working on… I leave a little extra seed in the feeder and by the time I wake up… the raccoon has come and gone. Last night all that changed…as we forgot we were teammates… when I woke up a little early and my friend the raccoon was running late. At the top of the stairs to our upper deck…I heard a familiar THUMP and as the raccoon ran to the other end of the deck…I gave a little jump. because when he got to the end he realized…there was no way out… so he made a course correction… which meant this frightened raccoon had turned around and was heading in my direction. He stopped when he saw me…we were now face to face… and I called on all the courage and wisdom I could muster to handle this moment with dignity and grace I wanted to say “Hello, Raccoon. Sorry I disturbed you… but you’re a little late today. I think it would be best…if we both were on our way.” Instead I looked that raccoon directly into his little bandit eyes then screamed at the top of my lungs…(who knew my voice could go that high!) The raccoon scooted by me…faster than I’ve ever seen him move before… while I ran into the cabin and quickly slammed the door. I imagine that raccoon went home and told his family about his adventure of the night how he finally met the man who leaves the feeder out…and it was not a pretty sight! It was not my finest animal moment…but in my defense we took each other by surprise… Tonight I’ll leave a little extra scoop of seeds in the feeder as a way to apologize.