by Cheryl, Gulf Coast Poet

Raccoon Party

Baby Raccoons, Photo by Public Domain Pictures from Pixabay

Raccoon Party

Footprints,

festive dark stains

in exquisite detail…

a raccoons-only patio

party!

Photo by Pete Nuji from Unsplash

Raccoons,

I need to know…

why were we excluded?

Not even invited to watch

the fun!

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten from Unsplash

Humans,

are you clueless?

Garbage cans tightly locked…

You don’t invite us to dinner…

Ever!

Baby Raccoon, Photo by ebo23 from Pixabay

Copyright© 2021 by Cheryl Batavia

75 Comments

  2. Such cute animals, and yet get painted as the bad guy in many animation movies I see. Maybe due to the dark shades around the eyes.
    Your poem is light and delightful as ever Cheryl 💖, and throws a nice perspective of how the raccoons might look at us. But then, do we humans also look at them kindly? It’s nice to see that you are curious to witness their foraging parties. My sis in law used to be involved in raccoon rescue teams when she was in the USA, and I recived some delightful pics at that time.
    Hope all is nice and happy there Cheryl 🙂, is the pandemic situation getting any better in your place?

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    1. Glad you liked the poem, Deb. Thank you for your thoughtful comment ❤ Very interesting about your sis in law working in raccoon rescue. They are very agile and very smart. People get upset that raccoons get in the garbage and make a big mess. Robert saw a video of them standing on each other's shoulders to access the garbage can. They are also famous for carrying rabies. Do you have raccoons in India?

      Florida has variant strains of covid 19. I think infections are slowly going down, but they warn that we could have another surge. How about where you live?

      I hope you and your family are well. ❤ Have a great week!

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      1. Standing on each other’s shoulders is so interesting 🙂 very clever animals. You have some amazing wildlife there Cheryl.
        We don’t have raccoons here, but the stray dog packs do some of the same things from disturbing garbage cans kept outside to carrying rabies.
        We are currently balanced on an edge, infections are reportedly down but with occasional surges. But we have managed to be safe till now.

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    2. Deb, I am glad that you and your family are coming through the pandemic unscathed. Is your daughter’s school open?

      I find reading about street dogs very interesting, a part of Indian culture that doesn’t exist here. Several bloggers have written about them, about attempts to vaccinate them, and people feeding them.

      Some Florida Native Americans treat raccoons as pets. Other people feed raccoons, but being too friendly may expose you to rabies and increases the risk of their being shot by neighbors who hate having garbage cans overturned. Still, I admire raccoons. They are very beautiful, clever, amusing animals.

      Stay safe and happy, Deb! All the best to you and your family! ❤

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      1. I’m publishing a cute poem ” be the choice”, specially for youngsters. I am sure you may have teens in your house, please ask them to read my poem once and provide me their feedback.Thank you.
        Have a nice day.😊

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    1. Thank you, Radhika for your kind comment. ❤ Glad you liked the post.

      Raccoons are very clever and amusing, even though they get into garbage cans and leave a mess and sometimes carry rabies. If you would like to meet a raccoon in person, some zoos have them. They are somewhat nocturnal.

      We have beautiful weather, and we are enjoying the spring sunshine. All the best for the coming week!

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  9. I loved the raccoons since a child when I used to watch a cartoon of the same name! I was so excited when I got to see them in real life on a school trip! Your beautiful poem and photos brought these memories back, thank you ❤️🙏😊

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    1. Ingrid, your delightful comment made my day! 🙂 Thank you for sharing your experiences. I am glad you enjoyed the post and that it brought back memories! I remember watching “Rocky (a raccoon) and Bullwinkle (a moose)” cartoons when I was young.

      I hope you and your family are enjoying sunny weather! All the best! ❤ ❤ ❤

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  10. Cheryl, it is not so easy for us to see raccoons in the wild, because they like to hide. But instead we see martens behind our garden, who like to eat the cables in the car.
    We are now looking to see whether and what we can already do in the garden – simply because it is fun. Yesterday evening our hedgehog woke up from hibernation, did a few laps around his house and ate a bit. This is a sign of the gradual beginning of spring! 🌞
    I wish you all the best, Cheryl 🍀🍀
    Rosie from Germany

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    1. Whoa, Rosie, martens eating your car cables sounds really annoying and dangerous! We don’t have hedgehogs, but they are very adorable creatures! In the US, we have Groundhog Day to predict the coming of spring. The groundhog is often wrong. The hedgehog sounds more reliable and cuter, too! 🙂 Thank you so much, Rosie, for your delightful comment! ❤ Have a great week!

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      1. Oh yes, Cheryl, the marten prefers to eat live prey, but actually it is omnivorous, it also likes to nibble ignition cables and cooling hoses. When it’s cold outside, the nocturnal animal likes to get to work under car hoods that are still warm from the journey. The martens are on the move again, especially in spring.
        We built a hedgehog house for our hedgehog ourselves, following instructions from NABU. We can observe the house and the hedgehog in real time with a wildlife camera that we have installed opposite the hedgehog house entrance. We always see on the PC monitor (in color during the day, infrared at night) what the hedgehog is doing, whether it is in hibernation or walking around, whether it is eating, etc.
        We fetched the hedgehog from the hedgehog rearing station in town, the volunteers there are always looking for “foster families” with whom hedgehogs can spend the winter in peace and who help to release the hedgehogs in the spring. Since we live on the edge of the forest, that fits well.
        Cheryl, have a nice evening!
        Rosie

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    2. Thank you, Rosie, for sending such fascinating information about martens and hedgehogs. ❤ ❤ ❤ I enjoyed reading about your "fostering" hedgehogs. It is illegal to bring hedgehogs into the US, but I have always enjoyed reading about them. I love observing Florida wildlife and have written an environmentally-themed series of poetry books, "Hanging Out with Wild Animals" There are excerpts on my website if anyone wants to check them out.
      Take care! ❤

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  12. What a delightful post, Cheryl! We don’t have raccoons, but we do have marauding grey squirrels. I foolishly left the plastic birdseed container outside last night and in the morning, I discovered a squirrel had gnawed through the hinge and pulled the lid off. There she was, sitting in the container, picking out the sunflower seeds, which I know are her favourite 🙂

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    1. What an experience, Chris! Thank you for sharing it, No fun at the time I am sure, but reading about it gave me a chuckle! I haven’t had trouble with squirrels, probably because I don’t feed the birds here, but I have cleaned up a good bit of garbage scattered all over the ground by raccoons! Glad you liked the post! Have a great week! ❤

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  23. Thank you so much, Dwight! It means a lot to me that you enjoyed the poem. ❤

    I have no idea why raccoons congregated on our completely bare back patio! We think they are responsible for several hundred dollars of damage to our water purification and air conditioning systems. Hope they can't outsmart the new locks! They need to visit a canal if they are thirsty!

    Have a great day! ❤

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