Yesterday evening I had an unexpected close encounter with the mother raccoon that has four dark kits. I needed to fill the bird feeder that hangs on the laundry line, and I came out of the side door of the garage with the container of sunflower seeds in hand, not realizing that mum and kits had just arrived beneath the feeder for an evening scavenge. As soon as I saw them in front of me, I stopped dead. Raccoons can be very expressive with their body language, and I swear that the mother right then was saying, "Oh sh!t". She took off across the lawn and disappeared into my overgrown flowerbed. One kit ran in the opposite direction, around the corner of the garage. One kit hesitated, while the other two decided that the safest place was underneath the deck. Since I was standing between them and the deck, this meant that they were running directly towards me. I had a startled moment in which to hope that they did not mistake me for a tree and try to climb my legs, and then they brushed past me and both tried to get through the gap between the deck steps and the house wall at the same time - and the gap is only large enough for one kit. When I turned back to look for the last kit, he had launched himself towards the deck also, but then he saw me move, realized his error, and changed his trajectory. He ran straight into the side of the A/C unit. Thump! Poor little guy. He picked himself up and went around the A/C unit and under the deck. I filled the bird feeder and retreated into the house. About 10 minutes later, mother came out of the flowerbed, rounded up the kit that had gone around the corner, and joined the rest of the kits under the deck. I had the kitchen window open and I could hear a pretty loud "conversation" going on as they reunited.
