Fireworks are still going off here and there almost a week after 4th of July, and regardless of laws against that. Quint’s no dummy. Tucked between fleece and a poofy comforter is probably the best place to ride out this time of year.

Meanwhile, around Colehaus . . .

Resident raccoon Rose Ears still visits, as we would expect. Her name comes from a combination of flower names Mom picks and by this raccoon’s unusual ear “markings.” It’s pretty easy to spot Rose Ears at a glance. She’s of the last generation to interact with Mom and Dad and while she’s cautious like a good raccoon should be, Rose Ears still poses for Mom’s camera. After a wildlife-hating neighbor went on a raccoon killing spree last summer, Mom and Dad decided to quit leaving cat food out after dark in hopes to discourage them from visiting. Secretly, Mom and Dad love seeing them still.

We mentioned the wildlife-hating neighbor because we believe he trapped and killed Rose Ears’s sister, Peek-a-Boo, last year. Peek-a-boo was VERY people friendly for reasons we can only speculate on – that we weren’t the only ones trying to care for the raccoons. Unfortunately, this probably led to her death. Unfortunately still, Peek-a-Boo was nursing three babies when she disappeared. Her sister Rose Ears stepped in, as raccoon mamas often do, and raised those three babies alongside her own.

This spring, Rose Ears often brought a friend when she visited, like female raccoons do. She was smaller than Rose Ears and the two seemed very close. We truly believe this is one of Peek-a-Boos babies, raised by Rose Ears, and so we named her Peek-n-Thru because she likes to sit at our fence opening, with her chin resting on the fence support rail, peeking out at the world beyond. Mom calls her Peeky. Peeky is a good raccoon, like Rose Ears, and like her mama, is curious about people. We hope that doesn’t do her in and have continued to intentionally NOT interact with her or Rose Ears. Still, that curiosity.

So, is it any wonder that Rose Ears wouldn’t bring her 2019 babies to visit? Rose is from a long line, some seven or eight generations back, who always came to visit each spring and brought their babies to visit each summer. Welcome, Rose Ear babies! You’ll always be safe here but you won’t often find food, so no begging!

After observing these new babies for a while, Mom proclaimed these two seemed much more robust than previous generations of visiting raccoon babies, and says this should be seen as proof that letting raccoons be raccoons, meaning they should find their own food and not come to rely on cat food, is best for all.

Elsewhere,

Neighborhood cat Scruffy is still around and still visits us almost every day. He’s very old for a cat who lives mostly outside. He’s well cared for and always finds food here waiting for his visit.

A neighbor’s cat W visits daily, too. He’s a good boy, now that he gave up bunny hunting three years ago of which Mom is extremely grateful for.

Farther away neighbor cat Pierre made a rare appearance in the garden just yesterday. He was moseying through and chatted at some birds. Mom was just about to bang on the window to stop him from going after any but then saw that Pierre isn’t exactly the quickest cat around. In fact, he was pretty slow. Like drying mud slow. Don’t tell him she said that.

Wally Winston Porkchop makes a daily appearance, too. Hourly, almost. He lives way up around the corner, but apparently, there’s more action going on down this way than at home. That could be Mom’s fault. She’s discovered that Wally likes brushies and five Greenie treats per day. Okay, to be honest, five sometimes turns into ten.

Here he is walking through our dry fountain bed because what’s a summer without things breaking around here? Why, that would be a boring summer. No worries though. The dead fountain pump is under extended warranty and is slated to be fixed perhaps as early as next week.

Wally sometimes hangs out on our tiny back porch (No, not waiting for Greenie treats, we swear!) and well, Quint thinks that’s just wrong on so many levels. They may have even had a discussion through the glass that might have gone something like this:

Quint: Hey! You! Go away!

Wally: Um, no.

Elsewhere still, it’s been an unusual summer so far with the lack of any real heat and with lots of rain that we don’t usually get. Flowers aren’t being burnt the very moment they open and everything is green, green, green instead of turning brown. Then again, the blueberries are late and it might be one of those green tomato kinds of summers when nothing really ripens. Mom and Dad LOVE this but know it won’t last. Nice change!

Thanks for visiting!

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Here’s an 80-piece online jigsaw puzzle of Quint’s photo way up above, courtesy of jigsawplanet.com. Have fun!

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A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2018 – No post on this day but here’s a random post from July 2012
2017 – No post
2016 – No post
2015 – Zuzu’s Vacation
2014 – No post
2013 – Awards and Bee-Bees!
2012 – No post