Fifteen seconds of Freddie

The last time I saw a raccoon in the backyard was last Saturday. A shy raccoon high in the elm tree (it was around midnight). I don't think it was Freddie. I think it was a spy to make sure Freddie didn't try to come back to the coontina. I've seen Freddie twice since November 17th (when I took this little movie), once with his little sister and once with a same size raccoon about a week later.

The reason my movie clip is only fifteen seconds long is because I forgot that Stella was out of her cage (which is why it ends so abruptly). Stella had surprised me by flying to my shoulder so I had to stop shooting and close the screen door so she wouldn't fly out and help herself to the cat food too. Freddie just kept eating. 

And I apologize for the dirty used plate. I couldn't put out a fresh one because I'm still scared of contact. I remember one time I kind of folded a plate toward him through the slightly open screen door and his two little hands grabbed the sides of the plate from me (that was cute!). Unfortunately the cat food got spilled and I learned he does not like to eat off a floor, food on plates only please. One time I threw some grapes out the door (he was right at the door and I didn't want those little hands grabbing me which is why they were tossed over his head). Freddie carefully rolled the grapes to the plate that was already out there (the stray cats eat earlier...usually). Anyway, this was one of those times where I felt safer just letting him eat off a plate that had been sitting there since morning. He was about six feet away, I quickly dumped the measuring cup full of food on the dirty plate and quickly closed the door. I feel bad about that dirty plate...can you tell? Ha ha ha. I don't like my raccoon guests eating off of dirty plates.

This is my last picture I took of Freddie on November 25th. The reason he looks so nervous is because there was another raccoon behind him supervising his behavior but keeping a cautious distance from me. Unlike that Freddie. :-)

I've been hearing stories about raccoons from people at work. How one person, when she was a little kid, encountered some young raccoons at the edge of a forest on a picnic and she and her siblings just went up to the raccoons and started petting them (huh?). Another co-worker told me how she knew someone who had a pet raccoon who lived in the house for years and when the raccoon was outside, he knew enough to crawl up and pull the chain on the outdoor light at night to turn it on. 

Well, I'm still on Freddie watch. I look for him every night. I'm hoping the sudden cold weather has just slowed his family down on their route and that hopefully in a couple days he'll show up again, even if he has two chaperones.  I really miss that little guy. I mean it, I really miss him. :-)