Feed Me!

Comments | 3

• Submitted by Lise on September 19, 2015 at 6:45 am

  Bluejays and other beggars

  This summer a cadre of bluejays discovered that we sometimes gave peanuts to our squirrel friend. Naturally they wanted in on this action. Since then, they’ve taken to landing on the fence at odd hours yelling at us to bring them peanuts… Usually we do, so their raucous behavior is rewarded.

  Down at my mom’s, the birds do the same thing if she lets the feeder get empty. The chickadees seem to be the ringleaders but all the species hang out too, calling until someone comes out with the birdseed.

  Some animals figure us out pretty quickly it seems, but you have to naturally sympathetic or they won’t bother. The lady with the racoon visitor seems to be the sympathetic type…

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• Submitted by cgrotke on September 19, 2015 at 8:59 am

  7 in the house

  There was also the time two adult and five baby raccoons came wandering into our kitchen. They came in through the open back door, walked through the dining area and over to the cat food bowls, where they washed their hands in preparation for exploration of our kitchen.

  We heard the unusual dish sound, and the cat was sitting with us, so we knew something was up. and went to see. Oh my, a kitchen full of raccoons. I started growling like a big dog or small bear. They turned around and started back out the door, disappointed at their eatus-interuptus, and went back out.

  The last one to leave was a little fellow, who stopped to look at the giant dog-bear that was making noise. He had an “ah, shucks” look to him, along the lines of “that’s not really a dog-bear! That’s just a guy…”

  Very fun, odd moment. We were lucky they didn’t have another minute or two, or our cupboards would have been picked over thoroughly. As it was, they just dirtied the water bowl while washing hands, ate some cat food, and found an old, dried lemon that had rolled under a shelf. (Thanks, guys and gals!)

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  • Submitted by KAlden on September 19, 2015 at 9:42 am

    I had a similar experience

    I had a similar experience when I lived in Boston. I woke up one night to some sort of noise – walked into my kitchen and saw 2 sets of eyes looking at me from atop the kitchen counter. I turned on the light to discover 2 fluffy baby raccoons – enjoying a bag of Pepperidge Farm Mint Milanos! These little visitors had obviously been there for quite awhile as there were several bagels – all with a bite taken out of them – thrown onto the floor; a jar of peach jam had been opened and devoured and set aside. The cat food bowl was empty and the water bowl had been turned upside down. All this, mind you, with my THREE cats sitting by and just watching the whole escapade. the raccoons had come in through a slightly open kitchen window and were having the time of their lives. I was able to shoo them back out onto the porch and down a tree and spent the next hour cleaning up after these two rambunctious toddlers.
    The next night I was careful to close the window and while watching TV heard a knocking sound coming from the kitchen. Apparently the rumor of cookies had spread because tapping on my window was not only the very large Mama raccoon but a half dozen of her family and friends. They came back for several nights in a row – getting progressively more agitated at not being able to get in. And while I thought the original 2 babies had been pretty funny this larger horde was a little creepy. I ended up buying spray made of coyote urine ( ewwww) and spraying the porch railings. Problem solved.
    They are clever and hungry critters!

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