Backyard Friends

Go ahead and say it... "Awwww... How sweet! So cute!!" 

Now...
Do you know what that sweet little fawn is saying to his deer mother? "Hey, Mama, how about we stop eating these leaves and go over there to eat every single cucumber leaf and blossom that our noses can reach!!!"  

Sigh...

We love our woods, and we (usually) live in perfect harmony with our woodland friends.

There are times, however, when it's really frustrating (We'll see if the pieces of Irish Spring soap keep them from coming back to finish off my once-beautiful hostas.), but usually we just laugh.  

Okay... The funniest thing happened last night.  

A little background first - Something (probably a raccoon) had figured out how to get into our big chicken food bin. We sealed it better, and I put 4 empty tin cans on the lid.  I was thinking that if they tried again, the cans would fall, and the clatter would scare them off.  

In the middle of the night last night I heard the crash, so I hopped up and ran through the dark house to have a look.  It wasn't the feed bin and cans though.

Right there in front of me was a raccoon sitting in a pile of sunflower seeds. He must have knocked them off the shelf where we keep four plastic canisters of treats by the back door. When I flipped on the light, the raccoon had his little hands in the air like, "What? Do you need something? Turn the light off."  I  yelled for Ron to come look and yelled at the raccoon.  Again, the raccoon basically shook his head and said, "Seriously? I'm fine here. Go back to bed."  I was about three feet from him, and he didn't care at all.  I finally yelled and waved enough that he said, "Fine... fine!" and sauntered to the edge of the deck where he looked back and said, "Ok, ok... I'm going! Sheesh!"

We were laughing and knew we had to clean up the spilled sunflower seeds. So I bent down, turned... and... not three feet from my head... a possum was sitting right there on the shelf!!!  She'd been watching the whole thing!  It nearly scared the bejeezies out of me!  I hopped back toward the door and yelled at her.  She opened her mouth really wide.  I think she was saying, "I was here first.  I knocked off the birdseed, but nothing happened.  I knocked off the sunflower seeds, and they spilled."  I yelled at her again.  She just opened her mouth wide again and continued, "Next I'm going to knock off the deer corn. Then I'm going to knock off the dried worms."  Finally, I grabbed a mop that was propped up out there and waved it at her.  She just grabbed the back of the shelf with her tail and said, "Stop that! Why are you even out here in the middle of the night?"  I poked her with the mop.  She grabbed on, so I flung her off the shelf. After a thump, She trotted a few steps, and looked back with a most annoyed expression.

I have the distinct feeling that they were neither amused nor afraid.