Round 2… I was too tired last night to care about raccoons.. I told the hound before we went to bed to be sure and potty as much as she could as we weren’t getting up till dawn. So.. she did.. but the raccoons wanted to play.. the hound shook her collar about 5 AM and I agreed that probably the coast was clear. I slowly opened the door and no raccoons.. but.. I had grabbed some old jars of carmel that I had canned awhile back with all intentions of taking the contents to the dump. They beat me to it. To the left they had the lid and ring and an empty jar laying amongst the grass. To the right they had the rest… none were opened but every ring was loose.. they were close. I have bets that they have a belly ache this am. The Stauff looked the jars over and laughed, “you should leave the others out here, they cleaned them up pretty good”. I almost wished I could have watched that go down. Looks like teeth marks on the rings.. ingenious little bastards.
Which leads me to think about how it all went down. Of course the family comes wondering through the yard looking and smelling for anything that might peak their stomach. They see the carmel jars nestled into the little brown box sitting nicely on the chair outside the front door. They smell a whiff of sugar and get excited. The siblings jump around each other each eagerly trying their hand at grabbing one. 14 baby paws and a cranky ole mother sitting there on the step trying to hatch a plan to get the goods. They start prying with their teeth until one won the spin with the teeth on the ring and the ring broke loose. Tiny fingers managed to twist the ring off. Now the lid. A quick pry with the teeth and wahlah, the heavenly crystalized contents awaited them. Only problem, there was only 1 jar and 7 little racconns vying for the sugar. Now, I have had little kids and I know what they are like when they both want something. They fight. I would have loved to watch 7 raccoons pushing, shoving and fighting to get their lick of gold or a paw smeared with it. They must have gotten along well though since the other jars also all teeth marks in the rings.
But then… if that wasn’t a good enough show… Any good mother knows, when it is time, it is time. At what point did their mother raccoon look at her little raccoon watch, moon, sun coming up etc and say “attention my babies, it is time to go back home for the night”. How did that work? How did she throw that rationale out there to walk away from all the jars that were so close, but alas unopened? Was she stern? Did she rap them on the hands and grab each one? Did she give them a good swift kick in the ass and tell them to get home now.. before the crazy women inside with her stoned hound comes out and finds them? Like the old saying “It was like putting candy in front of a little kid and telling them that they can’t have it”. hmm.. makes a person wonder. I need a ring camera at our door..