Lover's Lane for Raccoons

Our backyard is now the Official Lover's Lane for raccoons. They are courting and fornicating like rabbits! Never saw that in the seven years they’ve been hanging around our home, so I guess that means our yard is now the number one safe place to raise babies.

The raccoons born last year are now on their own, and show up after dark for their supper. They huddle by my porch door and peek in through the windows, looking for me. Last night Herman was nose to nose with one who was craning his neck to look around his royal floofy-ness to find me. When I stepped outside with a bowl full of kibble, the youngster stood on his back legs and walked toward me with his paws outstretched.

He clearly recalled the cookies I gave him the night before. So after I tossed the kibble onto the lawn, I went back inside for a few more cookies. He was waiting expectantly by the door.

Helen the Blind Baby Raccoon

I love raccoons almost as much as I love cats. For the past seven years my yard has been used by raccoons to raise their families and escape the sometimes dangerous heat of Mid-South summers. I provide a couple kid-size pools, dog food, treats, and in return, they respect my trash bin and drive away poisonous snakes.

My relationship with the raccoons has always been positive. They know me and I know them well enough to name them. Sometimes during the harsh days of summer I will find several of them waiting for me on the porch. When I step outside with a bin of dog kibble, they gather around my feet and "escort" me down the slope to the back of my yard that butts up against a tree-lined creek. There I scatter kibble on the grass and also in the pool for those who enjoy eating and bathing at the same time.

Every year when the mother's bring their babies to my yard, the real show begins. My neighbors on either side invite their friends to watch the tiny brown balls of fluff as they follow their mom's around the yard, eating kibble and other snacks donated by neighbors. Throughout the summer into fall, the babies learn to trust me, and by early winter, when they are old enough to be on their own, they continue to return, as taught by their mothers. And, as Mother Nature intends, they soon bring their babies to my yard...and the cycle continues.

The most memorable raccoon of them all is a baby I named Helen. I discovered she was both blind and deaf when I approached with food and her siblings ran for the woods, and she did not. I could slide food right under her nose, and she had no idea I was there. Her nose was in perfect working order, however. She loved peanut butter sandwiches.

Often I saw her sitting by the kiddie pool, where the critters got their water, eating kibble…alone. The size of a basketball, she would have been easy pickings for a dog or whatever to kill her. When I spied a stray yellow lab eating kibble by the pool, I knew time was running out. I had to do something.

Breakfast: A Wild Time -- Literally

At our house breakfast is a wild time -- literally.

This morning I fed 8 indoor cats, 5 outside cats, and 20 raccoons in age from babies to teens to grandparents. Last night was the same. Huge crowd. With temps in mid to upper 90s it's affecting the wildlife. No food, no water.

Even Danny was here this morning, unusual for him. I'm guessing he and his sidekick Davy are sticking closer than they have in the past.

I spied the brother of the blind baby raccoon Helen this morning. [See Helen's story on right sidebar.] A year ago June was when I grabbed her. Helen's brother, Huck, had a half blind left eye. Well the raccoon Ray and I have been watching walk on his back legs, carrying food to the pool to dunk, is Huck. This morning I shooed him for the umpteenth time off porch where cats were eating, and finally figured out he wanted water to eat with. So I tossed kibble into the pool. He sat in it happily eating the floating kibbles.

YumYum: "He's eating my food. I don't want the food, but I don't want Huck to have it either."

I started supplying the local wildlife with food and water 5 years ago when we had a bad drought that lasted for weeks with no rain and 100+ temperatures. I'd noticed my outside cat's water was yucky every morning, and then I spied a raccoon out at noon, eating leftover kibble and gulping water. I saw more and more clustered along the woodline. I bought a baby pool and scattered dog kibble. And they came, bringing babies and grandparents. I worried my neighbors would freak, but they thought the family was high entertainment, and since the raccoons proved to be an unusually orderly bunch -- few fights, no messes and no ravaging of neighbor's property, everyone seems fine with me feeding the group.