Pages

Monday, August 4, 2008

Creatures of the Night

Out on the porch in the 2:00 a.m. darkness I hear renck! renck! renck!, scrabble scrabble, skitter skitter skitter. A grey blur goes up the tree followed closely by an orange blur.

Red Tom, the neighbor's cat, had treed somebody in the little live oak. I figured it was Cheezburger, our resident stray, but when I went out for a closer look, I discovered Red Tom had treed himself a coon. Good Boy! An Arkansas Coon Cat!


Thanks to this particular pose, I discovered it was a boy raccoon.


He's a good-looking, healthy little fellow. I'll bet he's been into Cheezburger's cat kibbles. I wondered why there were kibbles in the water dish. Now I know.


As I snapped away with a *very* bright flash, the poor critter got more and more agitated. He kept opening his mouth to show his teeth.






By this time Red Tom had flopped on the sidewalk under the tree to watch me torment the coon with the camera. I think Tom was rather perturbed I had interrupted his fun.

The coon looked desperate to escape because this is a very small tree so going up wasn't an option and there was a crazy lady and a rather unpleasant tomcat below. I was afraid he might decide the top of my head would be a good place to escape or attack, so I backed off.

Mr. Coon finally waddled down from the tree and trotted off not a foot away from Red Tom laying there on the sidewalk. Tom didn't even bother to Ack! Ack! at him. (If you are owned by a cat you know what that sound is.) I guess they both had had all the fun they could handle.

Off he goes into the night. That fuzzy orange blob to the right is Red Tom's feetsies.


I hope Mr. Coon remembers this little episode and doesn't come back. We've got enough furry critters around here.

Ya know, there's a lot of drama around our house between midnight and dawn. Hubby misses all of it.

9 comments:

more cowbell said...

Great pics! Treed him a coon, huh? He is a really beautiful cat, love his markings.

LostInColor said...

I don't think I would have woke up at 2am! let alone get up and take pictures! I'm more the type to try to roll over and go back to sleep ignoring the crazy night sounds.

Kimberly Ann said...

I know they are nothing but trouble, but darn it, raccoons are cute little guys.

Doralong said...

Sneaky little bastards, aren't they??

booda baby said...

Oh, I've had me some run-ins with a whole gang o' coons lately. Well, our kitty kat has and I have to do interventions. I've had a whole lot of sympathy and understanding, so I'll pass it all on to you.

The curious thing is that in spite of being the BIGGEST troublemakers in the whole world, they are kind of cute, aren't they?

!! I just read kimberly ann's comment and I SWEAR I didn't cheat and copy and all that. And I'm not re-writing this just because she's a faster reply-er. :)

Speck said...

Cowbell - Now if I could just get him to bay like a coon hound we'd be set.

Lost - I was out on the porch at 2:00 am watching it happen. YeahOK, I'm weird. Second cousin to a vampire.

KA & Booda - Yes, he was very, very cute. I wanted to skritch him under the chin like a kitty. Then he showed his teeth and I thought better of it.

Dora - Yep, sneaky too. There's been more mischief outside that could only have been done by a raccoon. He's been around our house a time or two.

Lorraine said...

I felt like I was watching something on Animal Planet. Coons are so pretty but they are such a pain in the ass.

Oh, I just realized Kimberly Ann said almost the same thing.

That's what happens when I just scan the comments.

sageweb said...

Great nature shots! How cute...one tough cat. Maybe they play every now and then just having fun.

Miss Healthypants said...

Wow, that is too cool!! :)

I think raccoons are awesome, pesky creatures.

Those were some great pics! :)