The New Neighbors

I really had no intention to write a blog today since it sorta looks like I'm being an overachiever. But, what the hell.

My bedroom faces the backyard, so I get to hear the nightly visitors at the bird feeders. What I've been hearing lately, I thought perhaps the squirrels were becoming nocturnal since their war with Mom can get on their nerves. But last night, the visitors were really noisy, and then I heard the grill moving a little on the deck. I thought perhaps it was opossums. Nah. Ricky and Rocky Raccoon came a-calling.

I turned on the hall light, which usually scares away the backyard critters, but no such luck last night. The cats escorted me to the sliding glass door, as if to project me from the trespassers. I turned on the outside light, which again usually scares off the critters, and not this time either.

What a sight. The deck is pretty small, maybe eight by eight. It's big enough for a medium-sized grill and a table. The table is plastic crap and the most it's used for is holding up the bird seed Mom puts in a small plate. When the birds (and squirrels) come to call, two of my cats don't seem to understand that the glass between them and the table does not magically disappear when the cats want to catch their prey. Amber is the most hard to convince. I've seen her clunk her head on that glass at least once a day.

So, there was Rocky Raccoon on the table, eating the leftover bird seed. He looked at me like, "Hi. Howyadoin? Mind if I sit in with the band?" He didn't even flinch when I rapped on the glass to scare them away. The look was "I ain't goin' till the eatin's done." Then I noticed Ricky Raccoon under the table. His look said, "Hey, we're tryin' to have some supper here. Do ya mind?" I did mind. I minded a lot, especially when Ricky sauntered over to the grill to see if any of that food we cooked last Monday just happened to have been left on the grill for someone else to eat.

I'd had enough of the boys, so I opened up the door, which got them moving, ever so slowly. They looked like dancers in a music video who wanted to get as much time on the screen as possible so they moved away as slow as possible without the director yelling at them to get moving. Rocky moved quicker than Ricky, but I still had to rattle the flimsy screen door to get them moving more.

I'm sure the boys came back after they thought it was safe. By then, though, you'd have thought I would have secured the area so that no food was left. Nope. If they want to enter the Mom-squirrel-bird seed war, that's their decision.