Wildlife Observations     5/16/19

Tonights activities started at 8:45 and
Ended 10:35

You called it. Im a bad person or a crazy person. I gave the raccoon a cracker.
Im sure Ill get bad reviews because of it. Oh well.
If you know me you are sure to know I am an animal lover and am only afraid of spiders.. And then I am not so afraid as to KILL them when I come in contact with them. I also love camping.I am aware that I might love it so much because of the nearness of animals in their own environment. Years ago my family and I slept at Cades Cove with a few Black Bears after camping on  Cape Lookout with a mammoth injured Sea Turtle.
I recently made a nice place to sit on my breezeway with a table,plants and a few chairs.I should have done it 30 years ago but at that time I put my outside seating on the deck close to the hot tub. My partner and I have been enjoying the new area all day up until the evening.There are 10 cats here and they live outside on the property and eat on the handicapped ramp. I arranged a few pet food dishes down the ramp and they eat there during the day like cats do. Eating a few bites here and a few bites there. There is always a little left over in the evening but its always gone the next morning.
As we sat outside last night I got up and leaned against one of the brick columns.A noise caught my attention and I looked down the ramp.What I saw started this new occupation with observation. An adolescent opossum was right behind me eating cat food. As I quietly turned to look at it it looked right back at me but kept right on eating. The critter was tan with a yellowish brown down her sides. She wasn't as big as some of the opossums I've seen but certainly not this years opossum.Now I have had several interactions with these interesting marsupials before  , and upon seeing me they have always fell over, and played dead. The first time this happened I took it to a veterinarian! He taught me a few things about opossums. Therefore I always thought if I encountered one it would play possum (ha ha) not stand and look at me. Anyway I pulled up a chair and watched. She finished that small portion and moved one dish up the ramp. She didn't seem like she was in a hurry and I watched her for close to an hour.
I went inside to answer natures call,get a drink and a snack. My partner, not being that interested in nature watching ,went in to watch a ballgame. I quietly sat back down with my camera and notepad to watch some more.
The pretty opossum seemed ready to stop eating when I heard something that sounded like a canine and feline bark/growl. Looking back down the ramp I saw a much larger shape. It was darker in its coat and had a long tail. The animal turned around and I saw the mask. It was a raccoon that looked very fat and healthy.
Well as silly as it sounds I was thrilled to have another animal to watch. Over my long life watching wildlife has to be the thing most enjoyable to me. It is a feeling most people cant understand. It feels like my heart has swollen to twice its size. Its as if my soul has opened and is ready to fill that space with joy.
It has a way of lifting me out of sadness or despondency. The only way to describe how it makes me feel is to make comparisons that others can relate to.If you have children or grandchildren and you have saw the joy on their face
when they see a live starfish in a tide pool, or feel the soft coat of a kitten.
 I decided to sit and stay as long as the critters were here.
The raccoon found a dish of cat food and seemed to settle in to eat. I leaned on the column and settled in to observe.
The raccoon stayed at the bowl,but watched me as it ate. It was great the way it picked up its food in its tiny hands and rolled it around before putting it to its mouth. I know raccoons like to wash their food before eating it so I made the assumption that it was mimicking washing its food. Now this dish had held very little because the opossum had ate the majority before moving up one dish. When it appeared that the raccoon had finished this dish it looked at me,walked around the opossum and moved up 2 dishes. It growled when it passed the opossum and she moved over a bit to accommodate the larger animal. At this point the animals were maybe 3 feet from me. I cant tell you how thrilling it was to me. For 20 minutes they ate in silence with a few cats perched up on the wall watching their food be devoured.
Well as the raccoons dish was emptied  he looked to his right and took a swipe at the opossum .She backed up a little but didn't move or stop eating. She did get
through first and began to walk around the raccoon. I wouldn't believe this if I were the one being told this story, but she reached her snout out and bit the
racoon on its big bushy tail! Needless to say the raccoon was surprised and jumped straight up in the air with a cry of pain. When he came back down he growled at her and swatted her with a little hand, then bit at her. I dont think he got her though as she stayed where she was and continued to eat. The incident was over as quick as it started as they both went back to the cat food . This whole time I am trying to take pictures on a cell phone. I took a few decent ones but the animals wouldn't pose for me.
Not long after this and the opossum finished her plate and ambled off into the night. The raccoon stayed until his bowl was empty and it too ambled off.
Well I was ecstatic , and had to tell someone. I went inside and gushed all of this off of Eric but he was into the ballgame and was really not interested.I told my  mother who could only say "They probably have rabies.You shouldn't do that." LOL. So friends I am telling you. Needless to say I have been watching them
and I intend to write it down, every experience ,and I hope you come back so I
have someone else to tell.