Cats and Raccoons. Real and the wannabe.

The Civilized cat (this is Daffodil, baby Rex's nanny):

The Cat wannabe (Freddie, from a few weeks ago):

And baby Rex, who just recently learned to walk and looks like what a raccoon would look like if it grabbed some wooden spoons and started walking upright (Meg says Rex's Indian name is "Coonwalker."):

Yesterday I spent the day at Redbud Ranch and watched Rex (he's almost one year old!) go round and round and round and round the house for hours and hours and hours and hours. Rex has just learned to walk and it was so much fun to watch him go go go. But it's exhausting(!) and he was the one doing all the moving and banging with the spoons. 

When I got home last night around 7 pm I looked out the backdoor and saw a raccoon. Not Freddie. I think it was Freddie's momma. She was HUGE. One sight of me and she was gone in a flash. But no Freddie.

At midnight I went out on the deck just to be outside and look at the stars and stuff, noticed one of the pillows on the glider had fallen and then I heard a rustle. There was a loud sound of something being done urgently to bolt up those deck steps as fast as possible. I raced into the house. It was Freddie galloping toward me at full speed. He must have been famished (but I think that's the normal state of raccoons even when their tummies are full). His little hands were reaching all over the screen door in search of dinner. Behind him was another raccoon which looked like it could have been his little sister. Freddie got his plate of food but he gave his sister a look so she went over the side of the deck and then under to get whatever cat food fell through the cracks of the deck. Easy to tell what was going on because there was a lot of crunching going on down there.

I think Freddie has been missing for a week because his momma gave him a long talking to and a long timeout to get things clear. Freddie is a raccoon, not a cat or anything else. Dang. I think that's the end of my visits with my my sweet little raccoon. He's traveling in a pack now. He was moving around too fast for me to feel safe to take a picture of him last night. He's back to being a wild animal but maybe he'll be his silly, slow, waddling self again if there aren't other raccoons nearby to keep an eye on him. I'm going to miss the old Freddie. But I'm still setting a plate out for him this Thanksgiving. :-)

And in the meantime, I guess there's a raccoon wannabe that makes me laugh (oh I'm so going to hell with this one)...baby Rex, Coonwalker.