Humor...at Reader's Digest expense!

Forgive my lack of posts as of late!! I have either been too busy at home to sit at the computer, too busy at work to get on here and post, or my "dinosaur" of a computer (as the IT guy at work put it!) is not cooperating and I am unable to post.......it is, to put it bluntly, Sh!&#ing the bed. I might also add that there has been a lack of anything new and exciting to report anyway, as the over abundant (and very annoying!) amount of snowfall has pretty much kept every living thing out there holed up!

Laurie and I did rescue a Canada goose this past weekend that was struck (allegedly) by a car. A duck found dead in the road with him was not so lucky. We brought the goose to Tuft's but alas, his fate was with the duck and I found out today that he died. At least he did not linger in the street freezing and in pain.......The barred owl from Bedford is doing great though. There are pins in the wing and he's getting more x-rays tomorrow to check the progress.

I caught a glimpse of Tashmoo using his injured foot.....just a little, but using it none the less! Can you say RELEASABLE!!! Yayyyyyy! (assuming I didn't just jinx myself)

This story is from Vernon, one of our biggest fans....it is a riot and I must share it with you!! Vernon, I can only guess they became familiar with our boy Vin through your wonderful photo pages of him perhaps?? This is like one of those stories in the news where they tell us the write in candidate on a ballot that almost won an election was a cat! LOL I love it! It is most eloquently told by him:

The Reader's Digest writes to me every few months to announce that I have been given a half-dozen entries in the latest prize draw, something I have yet to win. These letters seem to get through despite their completely mangling my address ; I have tried many times to tell the correct form of the address but to no avail. This time the prize-draw documents came with a clutch of specimen cheques, each made out -- so they supposed -- in my name. Imagine my surprise to see that they were all drawn in favour of 'Vincent -----' ! So I have spun a wee story for the benefit of the Reader's Digest involving yet another role for star of stage and computer screen ... Raccoon Vin.

Is there anybody there?

For years I have been returning your documents annotated to indicate that your version of my address is wrong. Part of it is right but it includes so much else that my receipt of even some of your missives must be taken as tribute to the endeavors of the postmen.

I have just noticed, however, that you are not only using an incorrect address but also addressing your letters to my raccoon!

Now, I realize that-as Sterling North related in his book of the name (which you really ought to serialize, along with his more famous Rascal)-raccoons are the brightest people but even Vin does not run his own bank account. I hope, therefore, that, should you ever have the much recommended task of sending me a cheque, you will draw it in my favour rather than his. (Despite being blessed with the dexterity for which his species is famous, he does not have opposable thumbs and, unable to hold a pen, cannot endorse a cheque.)

Please, therefore, correct your records.

(Proper name & address inserted here! )

Haha!! No worries though, I told Vernon that as Vin's legal guardian I would be more than happy to endorse the check so he could collect the winnings!

Stumpy perhaps?

I can only wonder...... is this one of the gang that just had an accident leading to a shorter tail, or a new visitor to the neighborhood, or just maybe it's Belle's one surviving kit from her first unfortunate litter, Stumpy!?! I couldn't get a good enough look to see if it's a boy or a girl, but I'd like to think after he left that fateful den box with his Mom that night back in June 2007 that he found his little niche in the woods, and has had a wonderful life out there since loosing part of his tail as a baby. So I'm sticking with the latter on that one! :)

Things have been very quiet out in the woods with all this snow. I had the camera out there for about 15 days and only 4 short lived raccoon visits, including Stumpy here. Considering the snow is thigh deep on me, and still too soft to walk on top of for anything heavier than a mouse......I'm not surprised! It's just too cumbersome to walk through that, and for smaller mammals, too dangerous to be caught in! The coyotes are not as hampered by it judging by the highway of tracks they have left out there!

With another 15-23 inches predicted for us over the next couple days that may change too. I have been having enough difficulty getting out there as it is, this will not make things easier by any means. Uggghhhhhh!

The grumpy gramps gang.

The pictures don't really show it as well as live and in person...but the 3 babies (May, Moose, Amy) have got this funky overgrown eyebrow thing going on....kinda like those grumpy old men with overgrown, really bushy eyebrows that need to be cut....you know what I mean? Oh my god they look so funny.....and angry! LOL It's making their eyes look so small and sunken in.

Regardless they are still the cutest things! This is one way to make sure no one else gets any of the food. Raccoon muffin!

May is not fond of the cold and usually clambers into my lap to warm her feet up....or when she is hungry and doesn't want to miss out, she just grabs some chow and crawls up onto me to

keep her feet out of the cold snow! It's quite a balancing act....impressive to say the least.They are getting big too! Of course Pip here isn't exactly big to begin with in comparison....but she sure is damn cute, don't ya think! Moose is the biggest of the babies and he's almost as big as her.

Not many of the others wanted to come out in the single digit temperatures. Vin came out for a few bites.....

Amy grabbed her dinner and brought it inside....

Scrappy spent a little time checking out his dining options before heading inside to the warmth of the pig pile in the den box.

Everyone is doing great including LB and the boys in the other pen.

One of the reds and a gray are still occasionally using the shed to hang out in. The little red has made quite a nest for himself out of the whole role of paper towels I had in there....little bugger! Not to mention sections of newspaper and plastic supermarket bags dragged all over the place in there. Someone is have a little too much fun in the squirrel shed I think!

Special thanks to Bedford PD! One of the officers on patrol came across an injured owl flopping around on the ground Monday night. He scooped it up then a late night call from Jeff got me off my nice warm, cozy spot on the couch.....sigh! Hehe..I'm teasing ya Jeff...didn't mind at all!! It's awesome to know there are great guys (and gals-can't forget Kristen of course, she does so much for the critters!) like your crew out there that actually care enough to help! Come midnight the barred owl was safely in the hands of Tufts Wildlife. When I checked in on it on Tuesday it was doing well. Initial x-rays showed a broken humerus but they were optimistic it was in a location that could be fixed and were just waiting for it to be stable enough to safely anesthetize it and get better x-rays and go from there.

One lucky owl!

Why The Laughing Raccoon??

In case anyone has ever wondered....what the heck made me call this blog "The Laughing Raccoon?".....well a picture is worth a thousand words!!

And there ya have it! Just a very small portion of the many...including our poster boy himself, Goofball!

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.

-Mother Theresa

Everyone smiles in the same language.

-Author unknown

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.

-Victor Borge

At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.

-Jean Houston