raccoons

So’s I gets myselves a little place in the country. You know what I’m sayin. They ain’t no Nordstrom, no WalMart…no nuthin. I moves in and settles in.

In about a month, I hears a scrtatchin’at the front door. I goes to have a look. There’s a little raccoon lookin’ up at me with “help me” eyes. I looks at the beautiful little critter and thinks he could take off my finger without a thought. He be bleedin’ and his tail is sideways. He looks sad and needin’ help…blood all over the porch.

I thinks, “You ain’t commin’ in here1”

So’s I gets a bowl of water and some food and puts it out there for him. I talks real nice and tells him everything is gonna be fine.

My son, Baby Tommy, has this cat he was raisin’ since it wasn’t yet a cat. He takes it in the shower every day with him.

So… Baby Tommy is goin’ somewhere…”Can you take care of Hambone (the cat)”? I say, “Okay, but I don’t allow cats in the house.” I goes out and buys a “cat house” and puts it outside. I lines the inside with blankets and towels so’s it’s like a “cat-mansion’.

Back to the raccoon…

So the cat lives outside (most of the time) and I feeds it out there.  They is always cat food in the bowl. So, I be sittin’ out there, doin’ crosswords or…whatever…and over the fence...and up and over the railing of the porch comes this raccoon. It goes straight for the cat food. It sits there and eats (with his hands) all the cat food in the bowl. At that moment, I be sitting about three feet away. The cat (Hambone) be on top of the cat house. Hambone be swatting with all claws extended, smacking the raccoon on the head. Nothing! The raccoon reacted to the cat as if it was less than a gnat. No reaction. (This was BIG raccoon!) All this time, I just be sitting there.

With the food all gone, the raccoon looks at me, right there next to him. He looks up at me and takes a few steps my way…he sits down a foot away from where I be sitting. He looks at me and I finally realize he has no tail. This was the same young boy what came to my door so long ago.

In lateer visits, my raccoon friend came often, sitting right next to me. I never done took a chance to reach down and pat him on the head. As time passed, he brought his family…they all climbed the fences and ate grapes all night. When the entire family came on my deck and my friend sat by me….all the youngsters and the mother kept their distance.

Eventually, Baby Tommy brought Hambone home and, after a long and wonderful life, he wandered into the wilderness, never to be seen again. I don’t know what ever happened to my raccoon friend without no tail and have not seen raccoons around here for a long time.