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Rocky Raccoon

 

Wild life can be a source of great entertainment and joy. Rocky is certainly proof of this. Raccoons, as a lot of people will attest to, are pretty friendly and easily tamed (I don't much care for that word but most people understand it's meaning to be a wild animal that will come up to you instead of high tailing it off to the next county). And, as more people know, raccoons can be quite a pesky sort. Unfortunately the rabies thing has more people just plain scared of them.

We did NOT name Rocky after those movies by the same name! The inspiration came from a song called 'Rocky Raccoon' by this all time great band:


And as you can see they seem quite happy about it.

 

We first saw Rocky one afternoon while we were munching on some peanut M&M's on our deck. She started to run away when she saw us but stopped short when we tossed her an M&M. A couple of days and half a bag of M&M's later and she was eating out of our hand.

M&M's are still her favorite, the only thing we found she doesn't like are carrots and broccoli. The first oreo we gave her she ate like a pro. She held it in both paws, twisted it apart and ate the filling before she ate the cookie.

If we are on the deck later at night she always comes back and sometimes brings her pups. She has been doing this for six years now. Last year I got worried about her because it was getting late into the spring and I hadn't seen her yet, but late one night I was standing on the deck, leaning on the rail watching fireflies, when I felt a soft wet something on the back of my foot. In the dim light I could just make her out so I went for the M&M's. She greeted me the same way this spring. She has an incredibly gentle touch. When you get a good look at her teeth and claws you just have to trust she will keep that gentle touch.

Sometimes after Rocky has eaten she will sit on the deck with us for awhile and just enjoy the afternoon, she seems to enjoy just sitting there as much as we do. At times she can even be inspirational or at least make you think. Here's a little story she inspired:

 

Rocky

Rocky is a wonderful neighbor.

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Rocky

You've heard it before: a little voice told me, an angel, God or the Virgin Mary spoke to me. Some believe, some don't. Even those that believe aren't so sure when some one states that animals, trees or mother earth herself can talk. You may have read about it or seen it in movies: the great chief standing there saying, "Eagle spoke to me", or whatever. Well I'm here to tell you that last evening Raccoon spoke to me. DON'T TURN THE PAGE! Let me finish and then you judge for yourself.

I was sitting on the deck when Rocky (a wild raccoon) came up as she has for the past five summers to check for cat food and to feast on the peanut M&M's that we hand feed her. The old tomcat hissed and spat but Rocky, as usual, didn't seem to notice. I've seen it a hundred times, Rocky knew she could take the cat out if the cat insisted on a fight, so she just ignored him, no need to prove anything. Before Rocky took my attention I had been mulling over what a friend of mine had relayed to me earlier. Recently divorced from an overbearing, abusive husband she was determined to make it on her own. She was doing fine, except she was having a hard time with her new male companion who insisted on paying for everything and always wanted to buy her things, she kept refusing, not wanting him to 'take care' of her. Some how she needed to make him understand. That's when Raccoon spoke to me! Secure in her own self knowledge she had no need to push it with the tomcat, no need to keep proving it to any one else, no need to beat him up. My friend had fought a battle and won. Now it was time to move on, secure with herself it was time to let others be themselves without having to worrying about her old insecurities. The more I thought of this the more examples came to mind of how often we try to prove to others that we are, or, that we can, be or do, whatever when the only person that doesn't believe it is ourselves.

There are hundreds of different languages, thousands of different ways of 'speaking'. Sometimes we just need to understand how to listen.

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