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

Holy Blizzard Batman!

The only living creatures I know of that actually enjoyed the Nor-Easter/blizzard we just got SLAMMED with are these two crazy nuts!!! LOL

Bernard especially enjoyed it, bounding around like a deer in 2 feet of snow, then burrowing under it! I have to say I'm surprised.....considering he is a southern rescue. This was his second snow fall and he is delighted! They stayed out and played in it while I went and dug out the pens and I nearly had to drag him back inside he loved it so much. My other southern rescue, Marley the 3 legged pit, wanted absolutely nothing to do with it! I'm with him on that one!The pens were buried, LB and the boys never even poked their heads out while I dug out the door to their pen. The rest of the gang, on the other hand, were a little braver.

Nothing stops the 3 little piggy's from asking for a meal! They came right out and finally convinced a couple of the older ones to join them.

They got some fruit to snack on....even that didn't convince the smarter ones to come out into the crappy weather.....then we all returned to our respective dens to hole up for the remainder of the storm!

This is by far the most interesting position I have seen for eating a plumb. That's one way to enjoy your lunch out of the elements! (sort of)

Kinky digs right in. Scrappy was the only other one that bothered to come out. The rest waited for me to toss the fruit in to them in the indoor section of the pen.

The snow has finally stopped, but the wind hasn't. I have to break a new path each time I go out there....within a half hour of my passing, it's all filled in again! Considering it's above my knees, it's very frustrating .....and exhausting!!

An unwelcome reunion!

On my way home from work today I decided to swing by the release site and check it out. I had filled the feeders a few days before Christmas and haven't been back since. The food was barely touched.....typical this time of year and after all the snow we got just after Christmas.

Checked the den boxes in the pen and empty as usual. When I tried to move the one on top of the pen it seemed a little heavy though! So I grabbed a ladder and opened up the back and Surprise!!!!

Forgive the crappy quality of the pics....only had my cell with me!

They were less than thrilled about seeing me and the only look I got of the browner one's face was the first pic. Spent the rest of the time trying to become one with the back wall. Squished up as close to it as possible, facing it the rest of the time and not moving a muscle...because as you may not know, it's a well documented fact among coonies that if ya do that, the strange, scary creature can't see you! You are now magically invisible to all! LOL I took advantage of the "become one with the wall" move to cop a little feel (hehe) of the other ones backside! I was rewarded with this less than pleased look! But it was enough to know it's got plenty of body fat and at a healthy weight.

Considering they were cornered in there, I was lucky enough to see what I did without any war wounds! There is really no way to get a better look and give them a thorough exam for injuries. Both were BAR (bright, alert, responsive) and good body weight so no illness. If injured, it's not keeping them away from food or preventing them from climbing. I'm guessing these guys are smart enough to hole up close to the food in this horrible cold weather so they don't have to freeze their paws off for too long to get a meal! LOL
I wish I could say for sure who they were. I don't think I'd recognize any of Laurie's anyway, and they change a lot.... it's hard to tell when not seeing them regularly. I know who they definitely aren't.....any of the Attitudes (Vin's brothers), the Beach boys (Tash's brothers), Michelle or Pansy. I think the dark one is possibly Drake or Quarry.....both were dark like this and the total fear would fit Drake perfectly, where I would think his sister might have at least shown a hint of "hey I remember you I think!" Drake was one of the skittish ones that wouldn't come near me but his sister loved the mama! Of course I can guess till the cows come home and I'll never be sure! I'm happy enough to have had the brief visit and know they are doing alright!