Saturday, July 16, 2016

Recycled Raccoon

Just imagine, you've found a snug little place to live, within easy walking distance of your favorite dining establishments, then everything goes all to heck when you are rudely awakened by people throwing empty plastic bottles at you... When I arrived at work this afternoon, there was a minor commotion going on- a raccoon had gotten into a can-and-bottle recycling bin outside our visitors' center. The gift shop staff and cleaning contractors decided to wait until I arrived, I'm the guy who's known for dealing with weird animal situations. Sure enough, I looked through the aperture in the lid of the recycling bin and spied a scared, snarling furball under a layer of plastic bottles. I decided that this was no time for subtlety, so I tipped the recycling bin over:




Now, why would anybody pitch a perfectly good little raccoon in the recycling bin?

We were then confronted by a scared and angry raccoon that had no desire to leave the confines of the plastic bag that lined the bin. I stepped on the bag while the gentleman from the cleaning contractor pulled the metal bin away. I then hoisted the bag, with the raccoon in it, over the low retaining wall separating a small ivied area from the main pedestrian walkway in front of the main entrance- it wouldn't do to release a very scared, very angry wild animal into an area with heavy foot traffic. Now I had a very snarly, very scratchy raccoon in a plastic bag to deal with... I grabbed the cul-de-sac and yanked it, depositing the raccoon, one of three immature goofballs on site, in a nice, vegetated area. After giving me a baleful glare, it made its way through the mix of English ivy and poison ivy to a nearby sycamore tree:




As the little critter mounted the tree, I had a fleeting desire to give it a reassuring pat or ear-scritch:




This was outweighed by my desire to keep all of my fingers.

I have a genuine fondness for the three young raccoons on the site, but they sure can be a pain in the neck sometimes. I have to confess, though, that even when they are being difficult, they manage to be very comical... and I seem to be the main butt of their jokes. I'm comfortable playing the Margaret Dumont role in the nightly slapstick routine that is my job.

6 comments:

  1. We were at a park once when we heard noise coming from a trash can. It was one of those that swings on two posts.

    Anyway, there was a possum that had gotten stuck inside and we dumped it out.

    It didn't seem overly appreciative.

    At least your racoon loooked cute, if not entirely appreciative.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well good on you!

    For my own part, I have a rubbish bin handle on garbage pickup day story of my own.

    I won't go into all the details, but the lovely lady and her eggs were safely relocated far from humanity.
    ~

    ReplyDelete

  3. At least your racoon loooked cute, if not entirely appreciative.

    Awww, I think 'possums are cute, but it's an ugly sort of cute.

    I won't go into all the details, but the lovely lady and her eggs were safely relocated far from humanity.

    WOW, you are a brave, brave man and your love of animals goes above and beyond the call... most people would have gone into 'kill them with fire' mode. Black widows are very venomous, but they're
    not aggressive. We'd occasionally see them up in Maine. That sure is a great 'helping Jennifer' moment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. One of my treasured memories was a mama raccoon and her FIVE babies that were up my cherry tree! Mama was trying to call them down, but their tree descending skills were a bit rudimentary; Mama had to run a ways off when I came out to deposit stuff in the compost bin. I hid to watch her return and their fluffy little butts coming down, mouths cherry-packed!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's a great story, S/L, as much as I pretend-gripe about these three chuckleheads, I really enjoy the fact that they are around.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'd rather have the opossums than raccoons. Opossums eat ticks, and due to their truly weird biochemistry, they can't carry the rabies virus.

    ReplyDelete