Rocky Raccoon

Yesterday, while putting down a little mulch at Mrs. Morrissey's, Jorge noticed a couple live traps in her back yard, one of which contained a raccoon. Mrs. Morrissey informed me that she was actually trying to catch a groundhog, that lived under her porch, but had only caught four raccoons so far, and every time she caught one, she had to pay the company to come remove the animal, and it was getting pretty expensive. She said that they did not kill the animals, but that they released them into the wild; I half expected her to describe a farm where the raccoons could play with all the other woodland creatures and eat their favorite foods out of their very own personalized garbage cans, if you know what I mean.

It was about 92 degrees and humid, and I realized that maybe Rocky's (the raccoon's) placid demeanor was probably not because he was patiently awaiting his trip to "Critter Acres," but maybe he was really just thirsty and hungry. Mrs. Morrissey explained that he had been there for almost two days, and the company had not come to collect the trap yet. I decided to get him a drink. Every day, I take two bottles of frozen water to work, and one was about a quarter thawed, so I set out to give little Rock (the raccoon) a drink.

If you have ever heard a threatened raccoon snarl and growl, then you know that as I poured a little water into the cage and he freaked out, I nearly shit my pants. An angry raccoon sounds much like a wolf and a bear at the same time; nonetheless, he did settle and start lapping up the couple drops remaining.

Before we left, I wanted to make sure little Rock's thirst was quenched so he would be more comfortable waiting for his "ride," so I affixed my frozen water bottle to the top of his cage between the bars so it would drip for a couple of hours, and he could not only have a nice cool drink, but some activity to kill...scratch that--pass the time. Jorge left him a couple crackers, and we were off to the next job.

I would say, based on the above photo, that my little contraption worked pretty well. This blog would be much cuter if I could upload the video on my phone with his rather long tongue flicking in and out rapidly, but this pic will have to do. God speed, Rocky, and enjoy that farm. Maybe some day I'll come see you.