Drama in the coon pen.

I smile every time I step out onto my back porch and let the dogs out.

To the coons, the sound of the back door opening is like the sound of a can of tuna opening for a cat! Without fail I look over toward the main raccoon pen and chuckle because this is what I see. What the heck am I talking about you ask?

Look a little closer.............

.....and closer still! LOL! At the sound of the door what started as an empty pen begins to get crowded as one by one they start to gather in anticipation of the almighty FEEDING TIME!!! You would think I was starving them for cryin' out loud!

Little Andy here is nursing a bite wound on his leg. I think he harassed Vin one to many times....and Vin is standing up for himself now. Of all the encounters I have noticed, Vin does not initiate anything, he goes about his own business, then Andy challenges him. Now, Andy here is as tiny as Pip!.....Vin is a giant next to him and I think when I am not around he is putting tiny little Andy in his place. Andy is very relaxed around the rest of the gang....

...but if Vin enters the area, well this look says it all! He backs himself against a wall and covers his ass! Poor little fella. We're looking into maybe moving a few of the boys with Andy, to either Mary's pen or another rehabbers for the winter to give them all some room. My cage is big, but not really big enough to give so many overwinters enough room to spread out and prevent stressful situations like this from getting worse.

In the meantime, the rest of the gang is just as goofy as ever!

Stony who is really the bitchiest of them all (towards people, not the other coons) actually has a silly moment as she makes an effort to actually come to me for a treat.

Scrapi takes a treat ever so gently!

Pip.....well Pip is just a silly fool!

Vin.....Whaaaat!! Me??.....I'm not buggin Andy, I swear!

Tash and Dolci share some pumpkin.

Tash's foot seems really swollen again and he's not putting it down anymore. It's not slowing him down at all though, that's for sure! It may just take a while for the foot to heal....there's just not much else we can do but give it time . He's got all winter now!

There has been another one limping on the coon cam video at the release site but as of yet we have not come across it holed up in the pen. We keep checking, and one night Laurie and I went out there around the time they all come out and actually sat around for almost 2 hours waiting! There were 7 of them out and about in the trees but they wouldn't budge or come down to us! A little bitter sweet......we were bummed they wouldn't come visit us, but on the other hand very grateful to see they were so fearful! If they are like that with us then they are definitely avoiding strange humans which is the best thing for them!! It means we did our job right......but still, oh I would have loved to say Hi to my little fur butts one more time.....