Got any food in there?
This is Shaggy, our first visiting mama raccoon of 2022.
This is Shaggy’s second year visiting us and we know she’s a mama again because she’s raiding the feral cat feeding station during daylight hours, she’s a bit shaggy-looking from the side and back, and she has big, extended nipples. Won’t be long and we’ll wake in the middle of the night to the sound of trilling raccoon babies calling after their mama as she teaches them the route into our backyard and to our water fountain. They will need to be big and strong enough to climb a pointless wire netting fence our backyard neighbor put up last fall and will have to learn to avoid the yelping dogs that now live catty-corner behind us. It’s become a tougher world out there in just six months. We’re sure Shaggy will do her best at being a good mama.
Undoubtedly, someone(s) will ask how we know this is Shaggy. Good question and thanks for asking!
Raccoons, while looking remarkably similar overall, tend to have distinctive ears, meaning they have ripples, tears, rips, sometimes chunks missing. We once had a short-term visiting raccoon with just one ear, the other barely a nub. Sometimes, they have short tails, half tails, or in Bob’s case, a raccoon who used to visit six or seven years ago, no tail at all.
Sometimes, old injuries make identification easy. In Shaggy’s case, she suffered some kind of injury late last summer and dragged her right back leg for over a month. She walks on it now but it’s clear she has a good amount of arthritis in her hips. Climbing is probably painful for her as we’ve seen when she hoists herself up the boulders around our fountain to drink. This might be a good thing for her babies though. They’ll be able to keep up with her and no one will be left behind.
And sometimes, along with slight facial mask coloring and markings, their personalities tell all. Shaggy’s a good girl and a good mama. And we’re good, responsible wildlife viewers, never attempting to touch or “make friends.” Raccoons are wild animals and we’d like to keep our fingers intact. Shaggy stops, tilts her head, and listens to our voices, more so than almost any other raccoon that’s visited us, and we’ve had visiting raccoons every summer since 2006.
Why are you guys going on and on about trash pandas? They aren’t cute, they don’t like to cuddle, and they’ll eat anything. I’ll bet if you put one of our litter boxes out there, they’d clean it better than Dad does! Bleh!
Hey now! That was uncalled for!
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A Colehaus Cats flashback:
2021 – No post
2020 – No post
2019 – No post
2018 – Wordy Wednesday
2017 – No post
2016 – Many Ginger Cat Monday
2015 – No post
2014 – Tessa Toes
2013 – No post
2012 – No post
We hear the raccoons in the woods behind our place. Sometimes in the evening we see them.
We do not have one that stands out like your Shaggy. Dhe is quite cute.
Purrs, Julie
Yes, best to keep a bit of distance from Shaggy ~ kindness from ’round the corner, so to speak! How lovely that you have come to know her, hope she continues to visit for many years … in spite of the kitties “jealousy”.
Oh yes, we’ll never forget the first time we were awakened by baby raccoons screeching for their mama! They were in the middle of our backyard, and Mom had gone off into the neighbor’s yard, over a fence.
I learned quickly to bring in any feral cat food left outside; once, I forgot a carton of kibble on the back deck, and the next morning, the carton was up on our neighbor’s roof!!!
The raccoon(s) had dragged it there, and lucky for us, The Hubby was able to put up his ladder and take it down without the neighbor’s knowing about it. It was embarassing.
Sorry, we agree with Pia. We don’t dare feed our early morning outside cats now because there’s at least one who comes around and will come right up on the porch and look at us through the storm door, and the outside kittes run for cover. We’d deploy our airhorn, but the neighbors wouldn’t appreciate it. We had raccoon proof trash cans for years but in the last two winters they have figured out how to get them open – even with bungee cords strapping down the lids. So we have to go with Pia on this one.
How sad that she was injured.
It is so kind of you to let Shaggy use your backyard and fountain. I think she is pretty cute. I bet the babies will be cute too. She let you get a couple of really nice photos of her. I hope that she has healed well from her injuries and feels good again.
Shaggy is absolutely darling! Be nice, Pia…
My human has seen raccoons on our security cam now and then.
Shaggy looks very cute.
We think raccoons are pretty great, and we are glad Shaggy is such a good mom.