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Meet The Neighbors

As Amoeba and I have been out and about we have met a few of the neighbors here at Secret Cove. Last night on the way to dinner we met his fellow. As you can see, he was already eating.

He wasn’t in the least bit perturbed by my approach. He just kept happily munching away. However, when another squirrel approached, he whirled around and ran away. I guess he was disinclined to share.

Then, today when Amoeba and I were strolling along the boardwalk we met Little Bear. The housekeeper had told me to keep an eye out for him. She must have also told him to keep an eye out for me.

"Psst! Hey, you two! Down here!"

Would you just look at that face? Isn’t he a cutie? He isn’t tame, but he is “tamish”. The housekeeper came out of one of the tents down the boardwalk and brought rice crackers.

Apparently Little Bear knows her well.  He ran to her and stood in his hind legs.  (That pic came out really blurry.)  She dropped a cracker to him.  He picked it up and showed it to her.  She told him that yes, it was his, and he was welcome.  Then he ate.

After he ate he came over and did a chin up on the boardwalk at Amoeba’s feet.  He was hoping we’d offer him food, too, but alas, we didn’t have any.  He was still kind enough to allow me to take a close up, though.

This is the closest I have ever been to a raccoon.  This one has been here since he was a baby and is used to the ways of people.  The staff treat him well, but the housekeeper did say they have to be careful what they leave around so the raccoons don’t tear things up.

35 Comments

  1. Little Bear is a cute little critter! I remember camping once and we had 3 racoons approach us when we were sitting around the campfire. They wanted food, of course. So, we began to feed them some bread right out of our hands and then 3 more came out of the woods! They seemed very tame, but I think they were just desperate for food. We lived in Florida at the time.

    Did Ella get to meet any of these critters?

  4. We have tons of raccoons around here. This one time when I was housesitting I called the nighbour cat and two raccoons came running up haha. They wre very big ones (about 4 ft tall standing on their hind legs) but very friendly. Is there any reason this raccoon is called little Bear? LOL. (Note that I find this odd, having a cat named Monty Bear and we used to have a fish named Jessie Hamster)…

    1. Susan — I think they were extra vibrant because of the clarity of the air after the rain. Everything just popped!

  8. you have quite interesting neighbors there, quilly! my kids would have loved the sight of squirrels and raccoons. unfortunately we don’t have them here. =(

  10. Raccoons are cute until they’re in your attic. Or strewing your neighbor’s garbage all over creation.

    Squirrels are hilarious but they get in the attic too.

    The humane trapping services do a big business around here . . . especially at the houses where the people leave dog or cat food out for their domestic animals!

    I’m glad Ella is behaving. It helps to have a good book to read. I really need to get to the library.

    1. Kelley — if we were at home, we wouldn’t be enjoying them. It is because we don’t have to worry about him that we were so charmed.

  12. We have multitudes of squirrels here. It’s hard to keep the birdfeeder filled because the squirrels raid it. Somehow they’re not quite so cute when there are so many of them.

    The raccoon is really cute. I’ve heard they can be a nuisance, but it looks like this one and the nearby humans have learned how to peacefully coexist.

  13. With all the problems with raccoons we’ve had around here, in our attic, etc., I don’t think raccoons are cute at all any more. And don’t let the “tame” appearance fool you. My husband talked to someone who had raised a raccoon from a baby, and one day it ran off. Another man had 4 coon-hunting dogs, and they found the raccoon. . .and it killed all 4 of the dogs.

    Glad you’re having some fun being in God’s beautiful creation!

    1. Linda — as I told Kelley — these aren’t our eraccoons. They live hundreds of miles from our home, so they can be cute.

  14. BOTH are adorable! I do love raccoons — but I really DO prefer they stay out of our yard. We had that one come and perform for me at the bird bath — but he has never been back (to my knowledge)… must have been a transient! THAT little guy is truly blessed – imagine having rice crackers tossed for you each evening! 🙂

  15. They are the cutest! And what terrific captures! Susan is right the colors in the first one are fantastic. I do love seeing these little guys — another reason I’m sorry I can’t join you all the weekend! i might have gotten to meet them! I know you’re going to have a wonderful weekend, give Thom and Susan a hug for me!

    Sylvia

  17. We had a family of Squirrels staying in our Wood Shed when I was growing up. They were cute until they tried to move into the House. It wasn’t too longer Dad trapped them and took them to the Woods far from the house.

  18. My trouble with coons began with squirrels They chewed a hole in my ewes, then birds came and built nests then the coons came for the bird eggs and went inside the ewes tore them all up and now I will have a mess that will be hard to get up to cause the roof is too high to fix.
    Today I was sitting on the porch and one was looking down at me from the roof and the other was trying to climb up the stairs licking its chops.I am not sure if there are babies too.
    It was not afraid of me, except I kept telling it NO. It sits with the cats like it belongs here.
    I don’t mind wild animals but if they bite you, even if they don’t have rabies, which we don’t here in BC, you can still get flesh eating disease from their dirty teeth.
    So why look for trouble?
    But they are soooooo cute and as babies even more so.
    Just the best.The poaws are so soft the the fur so bristly. They look at you in the eyes and you can’t imagine anyone killing them for their fur. They just want to live like everyone else.
    I keep thinking if I could catch me a baby skunk and deskunk it, its supposed to be better and cleaner than a cat. They are calm and don’t fear anything. Just waddle along. lol
    but no Once the animals I have go , no more for me.
    I just stopped crying because my bichon shitzu cross got a damged eye. She is my precious darling, my little protector, my playful ball girl and to lose an eye from I don’t know how,was just heartbreaking for me. She slept for two weeks and we walked around her and pampered her and loved her heart broken.but now the eye opened and she is good as new. So we rejoice and count our blessings. You get used to animals and then sit and cry over them.

  19. That is just the cutest racoon ever. We haven’t looked at racoons in quite the same way in Illinois. I remember people warning me that they will claw at tires in winter because they like the salt on it.

    Your photos are really fabulous, Quilly!

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