Nature's Water Cooler

Yesterday we went for our first outing to feed the catfish and put corn out for the deer and turkey. We saw 1 raccoon, 3 armadillos, 1 buck, 1 fawn, and 11 does. Actually "we" didn't see all of those. I was the only one who saw the raccoon. I hope he's okay. Here's the scoop.

Two nights ago, Mom and I were visiting in the kitchen and a opossum climbed up a tree in front of her window. It went up on the roof, and then came back down. He then went up again, so I ran to get the kids because I figured he was sticking around awhile. When the kids came back, there was no performance. Mom and the kids went outside and could hear "crunching," like claws on the tile (Too bad I don't have the video of Caleb telling me he heard the crunching. It was too funny). Still, no opossum coming down. So I went out a little further than they did to look up on the roof, but I saw two eyes staring at me from somewhere else.

Doug and I put our refrigerator outside on the carport because with five extra people here, we needed another place to hold food. Right beside the refrigerator is a tall stand my dad built for the cats to keep their food up high so night critters couldn't get it (It doesn't work - it is the "water cooler" for the nocturnals around here). It has three shelves and the middle two are very close together. Sitting so still between those two shelves was a opossum, staring at me.

Well, forget the one on the roof, I told the kids to come out and see this one. The "crunching" could have been "Bonnie's" partner, "Clyde" eating the cat food. Anyway, "Bonnie" eventually scampered down the tree 20 minutes later after the scene had been cleared, but when I went out after an hour to put some food up in the fridge, "Clyde" was still stuck in his position, pretty scared.

That leads me to the raccoon. I went out last night around 8:30 to put some "Foza bread" (a bread my wonderful Baton Rouge neighbor, Foza, made and sent with me) in the refrigerator (which is white). When I opened the white door towards the cat tower, the raccoon must have thought it was the "ghost light" from "Cars" (check out that extra video if you haven't seen it). I never saw him on the tower, but I saw him hit the carport. That joker is huge. He's been eating cat food for quite sometime.

He landed hard on his right shoulder and then ran in place like they do in the cartoons because his claws were slipping on the cement. He finally scuttled away, but he might not be back to the "water cooler" for a while. I hope he's okay.

Today, we leave for Waco for Paw Paw's 90th birthday. It will give the animals some time to get comfortable coming around again, and maybe they will visit again when we return. More adventures.