Girly Coon

We now have a friendly little mama raccoon who comes up to eat the outside cat's food every afternoon.  We used to call her the "Afternoon Coon".  She has learned that during the day there's cat food outside and it gets picked up in the evening before it gets dark.  So she adjusted her schedule to arrive to dinner when it's still daylight.  She's actually quite friendly, barely runs when we go outside.  She has never been hurt by a human.  Probably never saw another human before.  I could probably reach down and pet her if I dared.  But I don't dare.  I would fall in love with her then. 

I always feel guilty taking away the cat food.  When there is no cat food she looks in the windows, waiting impatiently.  Sometimes she peeps in the backdoor, sometimes she perches in one of the windows on the outside ledge, just to look in.

Bobby the outside cat has befriended the coony girl.  She eats his food, and he stands beside her and watches.  Then I go running outside and attempt to chase her away, but she just stands there and looks at me like I'm a meany.  Finally I shoo her off, and she stands about 20 feet away looking at me, asking why Bobby gets to eat and she doesn't.

Of course I explain to the girly coon that the cat is a domesticated animal, and she's a wild animal.  She has teeth and claws and is able to find her own food to eat out in the wild.  She always tells me she's very hungry, her babies are sapping the life out of her, still nursing even though they're getting big, she's exhausted, and there's nothing good to eat out in the wild.  Why can't she just share Bobby's food? she asks.

I know one day soon she will bring her babies to our door.  And then before we know it there will be too many coons at our back door.  We figured when her babies start showing up we'll have to move them all to another location on the property.