What is this?

Monkey? Cat?      Monkeycat?

Oh it's you know who. Making himself completely at home. The bold and brazen article who is now even more so.

Last night I noticed that the gray cat that smells of cigarettes showed up for his dinner and as I was serving him his dinner...I noticed  the raccoon coming up the deck steps. I went inside, got another plate of catfood, went outside, no raccoon in sight so I set the plate down and returned to the house. And that's when a little dark hand reached out from under the glider and got hold of my jeans. Good grief! The boldness. I was a little taken aback and even more so once the raccoon managed to crawl out from under the glider and started eating the catfood that had been set down for the gray cat. The food that was right outside the back door (the raccoon's plate had been set down further down on the deck). Well, what to do? In between the open back door to my house and me was this pretty big raccoon in a pretty tight area. I couldn't walk over him and I couldn't walk around him so I waited for him to finish the plate. When he was done eating, he didn't know what he was supposed to do either. Luckily the gray cat had had enough of all this special treatment and jumped down, punched the raccoon  in the nose a couple times and then they both took off to separate parts of the deck to cool off (well, one of them took off to cool off, the other one just waddled around like John McCain at a presidential debate).

I'm glad the gray cat did that because I could now safely get back into my house.......so I could bring out even more food. Yes, I know what I'm doing is stupid but then, that's what everyone in my family dies of, we can't help it, it's in the genes.  Really, I had to tell a new doctor one time that people tend to do something stupid in my family and then die which is why my family medical history was so lacking. When my dad, at 70 or so, decided he had never bungee jumped before and wanted to try it...well, why not do it from the tallest bridge in the world? My sister and brother went to witness that when he decided to go jumping in New Zealand because someone ought to claim the body if this was going to be his final act of stupidity (it wasn't). 

Here's the raccoon working on his second plate and if you look in the background, you can see the gray cat giving him a mean look. Click on the image to see the larger version. Hmmm...maybe he's giving me a mean look.

The raccoon didn't want to get punched in the nose again so he climbed up on the bench to avoid any further confrontations.

Here he is looking small and scared and pitiful. He's a good actor. He's none of those things.

The gray cat got served his food on a ledge outside the back door so everything was peaceful again at the all-you-can-eat. 

The raccoon finished his second plate of catfood and a couple grapes, climbed up on the glider, got comfortable, and then started.......... getting...............sleepy.......

...1.........2..............3.............and he was completely passed out.

Thanksgiving's coming up and one of my traditions is to make a complete dinner for all the pets served on real plates. I love watching my birds carefully eat their mashed potatoes and gravy while I drink champagne. I wonder if the bold, brazen article will be here for the annual event. No doubt by that time he will have moved into the spare bedroom and will be helping me make dinner by peeling the potatoes. I know those little hands could learn to do it.