It’s still raining here, and we love it! Mom doesn’t have to wash the car and no one needs to water the flower pots. It’s not been hot yet, either. Double win! So, what do we do with all this free, comfortable weather time, other than work, clean out litter boxes, and wait for any kind of forward movement on getting our main bathroom shower back? Tessa reminds us we aren’t cleaning her nose prints off the window, that’s for certain!
We’re sure you remember Lloyd, the handsome boy who’s been coming around to our feeding station for months now. Recently, Lloyd starting sporting a collar, and although that collar is fairly ratty-looking, it means he belongs to someone in the area and that makes us happy. Even with her long work schedule, Mom hoped she would somehow find a way to make friends with Lloyd and that day has finally arrived.
And it turns out, Lloyd likes brushies! Honestly, his favorite is the dried chicken and catnip treats Mom uses to lure him in. She hopes, after time, he will come for just the brushies, and only an occasional treat. His fur is short and more on the thinner, dull, coarse side and he could stand to have brushies every day. Then again, he appears to be an outside-only cat, with bouts of car grease on portions of his back and ground-in dirt on his white paws. We’ve never seen him clean himself and sometimes spot him across the street rolling on pavement. Maybe if he continues being friends, and his self confidence grows, that might change!
Late last week, we woke to the sound of a single raccoon baby trilling sound and in the feeder that still had a handful of food from the evening before, was mama Shaggy and her one, very small baby. Mamas are usually very protective of their young and though Shaggy knows us well, she still gave us a small growl. Don’t worry, Shaggy. We always keep our distance! Take care of that little one!
Sometimes, female raccoons who grow up together, mostly siblings, live together and share nursing and baby-raising duties as adults. We’ve been lucky to have witnessed this a few times. Friday morning, we heard trilling and scruffling noises in our backyard and saw Shaggy with five baby raccoons! One is probably her own. Shaggy’s three years old now, and in our area, that’s considered too old to have more than one, maybe two babies at the most in a litter. Or, since these may be someone else’s babies, maybe it was auntie Shaggy’s turn to teach them about our backyard resort. It was probably her day as marked on their trusty raccoon den calendar.
Shaggy was sitting off to the side by herself, practicing self grooming while the babies ran around like the wild things they are, pulling rocks out of our fountain and rolling them around the cement patio, getting into our flower pots and trampling plants here and there. They were in and out of the feral shelters and playing with bits of insulation board that someone had ripped out of one.
Up and down our wooden backyard steps, tussling on the rubber doormat and racing each other back and forth to the lower pool of the fountain.
Then, Shaggy spied us watching from around the corner and she issued a growl that brought the babies to her side immediately. She cuffed a couple of laggards with a moment’s hold to the backs of their necks, like mama cats sometimes do with their kittens, and then, glared at us before turning away. We’d interrupted the babies’ playtime and her relaxing minute or two to herself. It was time to go home. And, off they went. Sorry, Shaggy. See you another time! If we could, we’d watch their behavior all day!
Everyone’s been grumpy here lately. Understandable, but not acceptable. Last time Mom went on a tirade over having to shower out of a bucket, I calmly reminded her I poop in a box out in the open for anyone to see.
She’s been quieter. I’m claiming a small victory for all of cat-dom.
