Regular readers know we’ve been working with raccoons almost ten years at this point. This first mention in this blog is Raccoon Mother Hecate back in 2017 in Heckie, Sheldon, Veronica, Porgy and Bess (the second post I published, in fact. That’s their importance in our lives).
Some eight months later Hecate introduced us to her second generation kits documented in We Got Kitted!
Our first encounter with Raccoon was Rockalina.
The above image is dated 6 June 2010. Rockalina aka Rocky came out from our pines foraging midday. Strange behavior. I worked on a porch back then and, seeing her, talked to her. She stop and look at me for a moment then continued foraging. A week or so of talking and I noticed she’d come and look for me. I got off the porch and approached her, always talking. She came up and sniffed me. I brought out some old cookies we weren’t going to eat. She cautiously took one. I put peanut butter on crackers. Big hit. I made peanut butter sandwiches. Bigger hit. We had tiny dog bones. She loved them.
She would come by at 3-4pmET every day and stand up until I noticed her, talked, and she’d come forward to get her treats.
We thought it odd.
Then one night our back light came on. There was Rocky with five kits, all standing up waiting for me to come out.
She was such a tender soul. I miss her greatly.
She also brought her sisters and aunts and daughters, who brought their kits. One year we had 19 raccoons in the backyard, most of them taking food from my hands.
It was glorious.
And it all started with one raccoon coming by in the afternoon.
Just like Hecate is doing now.
Must mean we’ll be seeing kits soon.
We can’t wait.
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