LOL, I don't live in a rural area or the country but there are wooded lots and large wooded area's around and we have lots of raccoons! I watch them through the window almost every night as they raid the bird feeders. A wire suet cage would be great for a bagel. I've had Raccoons abscond with a couple of suet cages in the past too. Never thought about wiring it to the tree limb ... great idea!
I've always heard that Raccoons are scavengers and will abscond with odd things and this is a funny and true story from just last weekend: My friends daughter and son in in law were out of town so she and her husband were keeping their little grand dog for a few days.. My friend had picked me up for lunch and after lunch we were out and about shopping etc. and had stopped at the grocery store for a couple of things on the way home. While grocery shopping she got a phone call from extended family friends who needed a place to stay overnight on their way back north ... a young couple with twin 3 year olds and a 1 year old. Their little grand dog doesn't do well around children so he needed to come to my house for the night. Well, my friend brought me home, along with the dog and his supplies and my shopping bags, groceries etc. I didn't have my garage door opener with me so I had to walk around to the front door to get in. I had the dog on the leash and told her I'd go in and open the garage so we could bring everything in through the garage. I wanted to also find the cat and secure her so the dog didn't go after her. He has two cats of his own which he's fine with but he doesn't seem to like other kitties. Anyway ... I had dog on leash, purse on shoulder, a bag in my hand and came around to open the door, dropped purse and keys ... fumbled and found keys, opened door, secured cat, let dog off leash and opened the garage to bring in groceries and the dogs supplies. My friend helped me get everything in and put away then she went home to wait for their company to arrive.
Next morning I got up @ 6:00 a.m., made coffee as usual, took dog out on leash for a short walk, grabbed newspaper from driveway and came back inside. I fed the cat, fed the dog and then poured a cup of coffee and got the newspaper but when I went looking for my reading glasses (which had been in my purse at lunch the day before) I couldn't find them. I emptied my purse, searched the kitchen and then called my friend who looked around her house and her car to no avail. I figured I'd just have to go to Wal-Mart or someplace and buy another pair of reading glasses (since I'd lost the spare pair a couple of weeks before.)
Anyhow ... a couple of hours later @ 10:00 a.m. I took the little dog out for a walk on his leash and when we came back up the driveway he wanted to walk around the house to the back by the water ... so off we went. My yard slopes down to the water and I let his leash out so he could go right to the edge ... there were a few piles of Raccoon poop along the water's edge and he was very interested in sniffing the berries etc. in each little pile. I was looking along the bank of the water, and down aways on my neighbor's property I saw something that sure looked like the cloth case for my reading glasses so I guided the dog in that direction and sure enough, there was the empty case that my glasses belonged in, soaking wet laying on the ground by a cypress tree. I looked everywhere along the grass (and even up into the cypress tree LOL) but didn't find my glasses. I called my friend and told her that I found the case and I was sure they must have fallen out of my purse when I was fumbling for my keys at the door the night before. A couple of hours later I had the dog out on the back deck while I was moving some plants around and as I hung a plant in the tree at the back of the deck I happened to glance over the railing ... and there were my glasses laying on the ground glistening in the sunlight. Well, there's not much ground behind my deck before the @ 14" drop into the water but I went out the gate and carefully walked around the back of the deck (holding onto the wood deck the whole way) and picked up my glasses. I guess the raccoon figured he could see fine without them!
