Raccoons in Maine

Dec 31, 2014 21:23


There was a time when my wife and I used to take vacations in Maine near Bar Harbor.

There was one hotel we liked that was up on a hill that looked over the harbor. It was an older hotel without things like air-conditioning and such. But, it had a long balcony that ran along the front where you could look out over the harbor that was very nice.

That day we had walked into town and shopped around. We had picked up quite a bit of fudge from a candy shop there and were sitting on the balcony as the sun went down eating some of it.

In the line of trees in front of the hotel we saw some raccoons climbing up a tree.
"I wonder how close they will come?" my wife asked.
"Pretty close," I said as they jumped onto the balcony and started walking towards us.

They walked right up to us, sat down and started pulling our pants leg.
I know we should not have, but we gave them some of the fudge.
There was clearly one adult and a few younger ones. The adult took the fudge and make sure each of the others got some.

"I’ll get some more," my wife said, getting up.
"NO!" I said. "It’s bad enough we gave them this. But, we are not giving them more expensive candy!"
I went into the room and came back with a bag of Cheetos cheese puffs.
I poured them onto the chair where I had been sitting and my wife and I backed into the hotel room and shut the door. We opened the curtains of the window and watched through the glass.

The raccoons jumped up in the chair and began eating the Cheetos by passing them back and forth to each other like it was a raccoon tea party. I have always been convinced that if I had a video camera I could have sold that shot for enough money to retire.

Once they finished the Cheetos, they stood up on the chair and looked back at us through the window.
They put their little orange paws to the glass and clearly indicated the desire for more.

So, we closed the curtain.
There was a knock at the door.
"It’s them," I said.
"Raccoons don’t knock," my wife said.
"Oh yes they do! Look out the window."
She looked and saw the older one standing in front of our balcony door on its hind legs and knocking on our door.

"What will they do now?" my wife asked.
"I’m sure they won’t give up," I said. "They know food is here and want it."

A moment later, we heard a slightly quieter knock and realized they had switched to the door of the room next to ours.
I don’t know anything about the folks in the room next to ours other than their license plate said they were from Quebec in Canada.
But, I heard their door open.
Then loud swearing in French.
A raccoon went past our window as if propelled by a human foot.
The neighbor’s door slammed shut.
The others ran down the length of the balcony to the tree and climbed off into the gathering night never to be seen by us again.

maine, vacation, animals, candy

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