Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce...

Oh good grief, I really shouldn't be giving the raccoon a name at all. He's a wild animal. And he's going to stay a wild animal. And I really shouldn't humanize him with a human thing like giving him a name. I learned that in a wildlife rehab class. It keeps you on track with your rehab mission but I did find out later that the people working at the wildlife center secretly did give names to the animals in rehab. Ha ha ha. 

I remember at the orientation meeting, all of us had to tell something about ourselves and what we appreciated about nature. Lots of nice thoughts, mine followed someone who liked to look at cardinals against white snow. Pretty image. But when it was my turn to talk, I said I liked to get a pizza and set it out on the deck and watch the birds have a big party (not my birds indoors, the wild ones outdoors). All birds love Italian food, wild or captive. I don't know how many nature rules I broke with that statement but I remember getting a look and...well, it wouldn't have worked out anyway. Ha ha ha. But giving an animal a name is an important thing because that brings them a lot into your world and hopefully a little out of theirs. 

I like to name my pets after people I know (friends, family, co-workers). So what name would I come up with this time....? There were lots of good ones for whatever reasons  but the one I'm going to try out and hopefully settle on (the raccoon hasn't come by tonight, otherwise I'd test it out) is a name of someone who retired from the company I work for several years ago. He was a darling man who was always in search of cake. He ......loved ........cake. I remember one day he was feeling very sad because there was no cake to be found and that was just so darn pitiful, I went out at lunch and bought him a cake, not a piece, one whole cake. It was so funny. It made him sooo happy. That man loved his cake. He would light up just talking about cake! So I'm going to try out his name on the raccoon. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Freddie K, who would be a cake seeker too if he knew what cake was.

This picture was taken last night right after he unrolled himself from being a tight little cat-sized ball of fur. Those are his  back feet in the front. He really did make himself kitty-size. 

I looked out the kitchen door window at 7 pm...

...and who was that on the glider? Was it the gray cat, or the raccoon? I really couldn't tell and 7 pm is not really raccoon time. Whoever it was, he was all rolled up in a ball and fast asleep. When I studied  him, all I could see was a ball of gray fur, some pointed ears and a tail that was tucked around tight, but whoever it was, he did have some subtle striping in his tail... so I opened the door to check out who it was. Guess who unrolled himself and showed his sleepy face? He had been waiting.

Meg says I'm running a coontina. :-) Yes, I am. From 6pm to 1am every night, it's all you can eat and only what you want to eat. Tonight I gave him his plate of cat food but he wanted more,  so I just handed him a measuring cup full of catfood through the slightly open screen door. Although he's entirely comfortable with me, I'm not so trusting of him (although so far he's the been the best behaved "stray cat" that's come around ). He took the measuring cup from my hand and seemed to like grabbing the food from the cup since when he eats, everything is carried from his hand to his mouth. Later I tossed him a small bunch of grapes and he carefully rolled them all back to the paper plate. He certainly is a civilized little thing. 

He reminded me of a sketch I had done of my old cat Bert in my 1982 sketchbook (I've had it lying around because I pulled it out to post that ghost drawing on Halloween). 

Bert:

and the cat impostor: 

Somebody has this stray cat lifestyle nailed! He certainly has had plenty of cats to study. Here's Violet giving him some strong scrutiny after the poor thing just woke up. That lasted all of 15 seconds and then the two totally ignored each other. I think the raccoon is her favorite stray cat that has appeared at the back door.

He continues to be so damn cute. Later this evening, I called Violet's name to get her back in the house for the night and who came running up the deck steps?

Not the solid gray cat who has lived in this house for 14 years whose first name starts with the letter "V."

A sunny day and that means.....BUGS!!!!

I was heading out the door today and surprise, it was a sunny day and almost 60 degrees and sure enough, on the front screen porch......bugs. The temperatures have been dropping into the 20s at night but today, since it was kind of "warm," on my front porch were one praying mantis, several ladybugs and a lacewing....all on the porch screen warming their tummies. There was also one stinkbug on the molding ......but he never moved. :-/ This guy however, was pretty animated and was enjoying the sun. He had quite the expression (but what's up with the lumpy complexion?).

Every praying mantis I met over this past summer has had a different personality, and mission. They helped me with the grasshopper problem, were amused by bees forcing themselves to the very bottom of the turtleheads, beheaded an ant, grabbed something from a spider web for a quick snack, attacked me (!), but generally I'm impressed with all of them for their grace and how they took the time to consider the things around them. They're pretty patient. They're not jumping and  flying around like other bugs. If you see one in a spot in the morning, chances are he or she will be near the same spot at night. 

A profile, late in the day, of what is probably my last praying mantis photo of the year ...

I remember telling Sherry how much I missed photographing my backyard insects (and this was a month ago) and she told me to just go to a park and lift up some leaves and that I'd  find the bugs. "Oh, they're there Maria." It hasn't gotten to that point yet because I'm still bringing in my plants every night and putting them out again in the morning. And so every night a stinkbug or two comes in and also about a dozen lacewings. And in the morning they all go out again.

Last night Violet was captivated with a stinkbug that was active in the kitchen.

Violet would paw him down into that stack of  plastic pot covers for plants (I got them at a nursery years ago because I liked the colors-I've never used them though).

After the stinkbug got knocked down, he would just crawl back up the wall...to be pawed down again.

I had always been afraid (?) of stinkbugs because I thought the little things carried a concentrated stink like a skunk. I guess you can't shake them up that easy because I sure have tested them, and now, so has Violet. That stinkbug would not oblige us with a stink. He didn't care. Crawling up the wall and being knocked down was just something to do until he got to go out the next morning.

Interesting little stinkers, that's what they are. >:-)

And so, this should be the last bug post of the year and I'm closing it with a photo of this lazy girl. She's dragging her flying wings and that shadow is long but her makeup still looks good (even though I think she got a little carried away with the application of her beauty spots).

Look who just showed up at midnight...

...for dinner, some grapes, and I swear, to be tucked in for the night.

Sweet dreams.