A raccoon who was like a member of the family this summer.
As summer finally melts away and gives way to fall, I thought it’d be fitting to use a ridiculously cute member of our family as the picture of the day. We live on the outskirts of Owensboro, in a bit of a rural area, meaning that in addition to humans, cats, guinea pigs, and hamsters – we consider raccoons, possums, birds, skunks, squirrels, coyotes, foxes, and an occasional deer to be family as well.
Then again, we all have a few skunks in our family, don’t we?
I call the precious raccoon pictured above and below “Agatha Christie,” after my favorite human, non-family member author. Agatha became a new mother this past spring/summer (baby raccoons aren’t just cute, they’re impossibly cute). I knew she had to be as miserable on those 100 – 110 degree days as the rest of us were, so in addition to the bowls of drinking water I always provide for wildlife – I filled the lid of a huge Styrofoam cooler with cool water several times throughout the day. During the hottest part of summer, she’d come twice a day and just lie in the water for a while.
In the picture below, she’d just gotten up from her bath and was marching off toward a plate of cat food.
According to her, I run the best resort in town. Below, she’s enjoying a little cat food, a favorite delicacy. Truth be told, I haven’t really found much of anything raccoons (or possums) WON’T eat! They love to raid our bird feeders too, which is always a sight.
It looks kind of like Agatha’s doing the Macarena here, doesn’t it? She was picking up a piece of cat food off the ground and taking it to her mouth at the time. So darn cute!