Chris' raccoon watching contraption-building culminated in this beauty.....complete with rain gutters and twinkling Christmas lights, because, you know, we'd hate to put something tacky in our yard......
The lights allowed us to see the raccoons really well.......
.......but unfortunately this familiarity also led Chris to the (mistaken) conclusion that the raccoons were indeed his friends. That's right, he imagined himself as the Raccoon Whisperer and soon found himself sitting outside with all five critters surrounding him as he attempted to feed them dogfood......from his hand.
This in turn led to a late night walk over to the ER for a rabies vaccination.
Chris was stunned....he came inside and informed me that he was shocked that he'd been bitten....I couldn't believe that he was so surprised that a wild animal would bite him. This did lead to very productive discussion with the boys though about the differences between wild and domesticated animals.....
I don't think the incident has put a damper on Chris's enthusiasm for all things raccoon, especially since I saw that he put "raccoon dog food" on our grocery list for next week.....but hopefully it's halted any more dreams of finding a raccoon baby and raising it as our own....
I blame Grandpa Reintjes for this.......how could a son grow up in a home where every stray animal was taken in, including a chipmunk who lived in his father's pocket, not want pet raccoons when the opportunity presents itself?
This cracked me up!! I think the blame on Grandpa Reintjes is right on the money!! We even raised a couple squirrels from babies. That was fun!
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