Winter at the Raccoon Orphanage

It snowed in the Northwoods -- finally. I mean it really snowed. Started early last night sometime and hasn't quit yet -- twenty four hours later. It's a very pleasant snow. Sparkly, glittery little floating entities slowly piling up everywhere. It looks like it's fragile little balancing pieces of glittering powder. I had to shovel an accumulation of about a foot off the top of Hiway & Shazbot's mini-coondo. The weatherman says we're in for sub-zero weather tomorrow and colder over the weekend. The kids got sent home from school today at lunch time. It's pretty rare to get a snow day in Coleman!


Lillian made a rare appearance - but if you watch the video you'll see she's very careful not to put her feet right in the snow. She spends some time eating a few icicles from the top of the Coondo perimeter though. But I think she's giving me a bit of a 'what ARE you doing' look when she sees me through the window moving the CoonCam trying to get her climbing antics.

Mid Winter Meltdown

Yup. You can hear the water dripping in little waterfalls outside already this morning. Sounds like a spring rain -- but it's just the snow and ice melting. Nearly 40 degrees and the sun isn't up yet. A 'normal' year we have icicles 6 feet long hanging everywhere.

Benjamin & Lillian were pretty rambunctious around 2 pm yesterday and if the weather holds, they probably will be today too. They rather enjoyed having water instead of ice to play with. There's a pretty good fog out there this morning though so the CoonCam may see that. When we get a meltdown like this, it causes steam to rise and make awesome fog cover.

Weather like this in early January is going to get a lot of furry critters out and about exploring and bouncing around. I even saw a patch of lawn yesterday!!

Snowing in the Northwoods -- whoda thunk?

Guess you could call it snow. Looks like maybe a whole inch might be covering the GeeWiZ van. Lots of 4 a.m. banging around in the Coondo but no faces peeking out anywhere. The mini-coondo sounds pretty quiet. Hiway & Shazbot must be sleeping. Lillian & Benjamin would rather be out in the forest now. But they'll have to be patient until the weather is more food foraging friendly.

Feels pretty balmy out there at 30 degrees. Might sound odd to some folks to hear 30 degrees feels warm -- guess you just have to experience Wisconsin weather for a while to understand that one. :^)

Christmas Eve in the Northwoods

We had a thick fog set in for two days that started melting about everything. Yesterday it was beautiful out and all the ice melted that was in the swimming pool and frozen to the ground pans. I gave the coonies some fresh warm water and Hiway & Shazbot particularly enjoyed playing in the water and standing in it. Benjamin & Lillian don't seem to care much. They don't even go in the pool. My Hiway has outgrown her halter. Haven't been able to find one quite like it her size yet. Then later on in the morning it started to freezing rain and snow. Doesn't look like too much on the ground -- a few inches maybe. I hear the snow plows so it must be icy under that little bit of snow.

A couple of 'the boys' -- Arthur's growing up buddies -- are home on leave. One from the Army & one from the Marines. Those rowdy little kindergarten boys got so big. Brandon's wife Danielle is a sweetheart. Stever is scheduled for deployment in a few months.

Have a safe and happy Christmas Eve.

Hiway

I'm a proud coonie mom. The good news is .... Hiway snarfed at me. The bad news is .... Hiway snarfed at me. What this means is that Girlfriend has learned something from Shazbot! Only took her six months, but she did it!! She also managed to jump down off the chair instead of falling off! [Yes - after she climbed up all by herself!] It may sound like an awfully small thing to do -- but for Hiway it's progress!

She was sitting by my feet eating her dog kibble while I was admiring her and stroking her. She gave the cutest little snarf -- but had no idea what it meant. Just kept eating like it was nothing. Later on yesterday Hiway took an outing to Doug & Mary's farm. Everyone agrees that Hiway has grown incredibly. My guess just by holding the big baby, would be 25 pounds. She was quite eager to go on her outing. She likes that. She climbs right in the van and into her travel kennel. After our visits, she climbs right back in. Come home and she's ready to check everything in the orphanage is correct. Shazbot is usually quite happy to see Hiway back home as Shazbot doesn't like to be without her now. But Shazbot is a sassy little honey -- she doesn't need to learn things like Hiway does. Shazbot's a pretty smart little coonie and her wild instincts have been apparent for months. Was hoping she'd help Hiway wild up a bit. And now? Hiway can snarf thanks to miss sassiness roomie Sarah Shazbot. Yup. A proud moment.

Lillian and Benjamin will have run of the perimeter today. Didn't work out too well in the perimeter for Hiway. She climbed the door and fell off of it. So she and Shazbot are back in their mini-coondo for now. Lillian & Benjamin have grown -- well -- huge in the past few weeks. They are going to be quite excited to run around in the perimeter today. But with only one CoonCam functioning, don't know how much we'll be able to see -- only half of the perimeter area. And with the weather dropping below 30 lately, the swimming pool is now just a toy box.

If you've been watching the CoonCam - you've probably seen Benjamin has started pacing a lot. He may be asking to go on his Big Adventure, but Lillian is not ready. He can't go alone, so let's see what Lillian does in the next week or two.

Mini-Coondo Graduation Day

With Lillian and Benjamin in the big Coondo, now that the big boys have gone onto their Big Adventure, things at the orphanage are changing. The weather is getting down to the 20's and 30's at night.

Lillian & Benjamin have settled nicely into the Coondo and are enjoying having more room to roam around. Plans are to introduce Sarah Shazbot to Lillian & Benjamin at around 3:30 p.m. Central time, when her Mariah comes home from school. This is hard for Mariah watching her Sarah grow so quickly. She won't even listen to any discussion of future Big Adventure plans for Sarah Shazbot. The twins already know Hiway from being cagemates a few months ago. But they don't like Hiway much. Since Hiway doesn't bother to fight back if someone challenges her -- she just sits there trying to figure out what's happening -- the transition may not be able to be completed in one day. Shazbot needs to be caged with Hiway and they cannot be separated. For all practical purposes, they are now littermates and need to stay together.

Shazbot gets pretty testy with Hiway at feeding time. She tries to nab all the food for herself. Hiway, being the gentle soul she is, just moves over or goes to do something else. Shazbot always was a lot more feisty than Hiway. Even though Shazbot's half Hiway's age, she calls the shots in the mini-coondo. This attitude may cause problems with Benjamin, since he considers himself the 'big honcho' of he and Lillian. But -- he's got a surprise coming with Shazbot I think. She doesn't back down too quickly.

The four of them have been side by side in two separate mini-coondos for the season, so integration shouldn't be a big issue. But - as always with coonies -- we'll just have to watch and see what happens.

Photos are me and my bestest girlfriend Hiway the other day. She's just such a big baby ... and getting quite heavy besides. She is approximately 6.5 months old now and it's a miracle she's here.

Fall Color Run

Finding it necessary to freelance as much as possible to generate income, I had occasion to visit the western side of the county that the tornado hit many weeks ago. Huge logs being trucked out of the forest at a steady rate, or stacked along side in acreage anywhere there is space to wait for trucks. It was not declared a disaster area [from what I understand] because the main destruction was national and state forest land. Damage to the populated areas varied from being wiped off the map to only high winds. Here's hoping the Lakewood citizens and others affected by that devastation are getting the assitance they need to rebuild their lives.

Although the colors in the Northwoods have been a spectacular display of reds, oranges, yellows and other striking bursts of colors - there are just spots where there is no color at all, only acre after acre of piled logs -- old conifer trees -- just waiting to be removed and forgotten.

Meanwhile, here is a video of some of the coonies at the orphanage today. Hiway & Shazbot are doing really well together. Lillian & Benjmain are growing too fast, and Oliver & Louie aren't sure if they're babies or want to go explore or what. Only time will tell.

Northwoods Intrigue - the call of the wild

48 degrees in the Northwoods this morning. Louie caught a scent in the breeze the other day that made him curious and want to go find what the smells were and where they were coming from. He started pacing and his curiosity has him overwhelmed. He's aching for his Big Adventure. Not enough new things to feel and touch in the Coondo anymore.

The sense of touch is important to the coonies. It's keener than their sight. When they become accustomed to all the things in the Coondo and it's perimeter that they can touch, feel, and roll around in their hands before giving it a little taste, they need to find other new things to experience. Their world is so full of different textures, smells and tastes in the wild that it keeps them busy for a lifetime. But in the perimeter areas and the Coondos? Well, after a while they know what everything is and want to go find new and exciting things.

It's always hard to see they are aching to go on their Big Adventure as the apprehension of whether they are ready always sneaks in. But these boys, Leon, Louie and Oliver have grown big and strong and want to go explore more new things. Even fuzzy little Leon doesn't seem to be such a 'baby' anymore. After Kudos, Lillith, Blondie and Stanley went on their Big Adventure, much changed for the boys left in the Coondo.

At first they became very quiet and stayed close together, knowing something was very different. Then after a few days, they began to look out the fences to see if they could see any of their littermates. And with the smell of autumn in the air they know there is much more to life than just hanging out in the Coondo. They have spent the past 5 months learning how to do things coonies do and want to go try it out on their own. With our human kids we have 18 years to teach them and prepare them if we're lucky. With our fur kids we might have a year, but usually less. Letting go is no different for either. We hope we taught them well and the right things so they can survive with success. We hope they will know what to do when confronted by situations. But with our fur kids sometimes we never know and have to go on faith.

Little Shazbot has grown so fast and is nearly the size of Hiway now. She's still a ball of fluff, but she's no longer a baby coonie. She's not even a toddler anymore. Shazbot and Hiway are so good for each other. Shazbot convinces Hiway to quit her frenzied pacing up and down, but on the other hand, Hiway has taught Shazbot how to do a little jump hop on the fence. They have gone through changes having a littermate after so many months of being alone. It has allowed them to look to each other for companionship and comfort and rely less and less on us humans. It's a bittersweet victory for both of these girls. It's good to see them find comfort in their own kind, but it leaves the humans at a loss being no longer needed as much. I wonder sometimes who the adjustments are harder for - the humans or the critters.

Benjamin & Lillian have grown just as fast, they are bigger than Hiway now. But they have a lot more of a wild side than Hiway. As it looks now, Benjamin, Lillian, Shazbot and Hiway will be denning in the Coondo for the winter months. It will be time to hibernate when they are actually big enough to go out on their own and with our winter weather in the Northwoods, any release after October could be detrimental. The food sources get scarce, the water sources freeze over, and the cold North winds are brutal. Hopefully the warmer weather we've been experiencing will hold out for Leon, Louie and Oliver to go and get established in the forest. But for the other four it will be Spring before their Big Adventure time arrives.

So Quiet in the Coondo

Leon, Oliver & Louie have been so quiet since the others left them in the Coondo. Oliver's swollen ear is slowly getting better. The boys look smaller to me today for some reason. Perhaps it's wishful thinking so they can stay longer. April 29th brought in the first infants this season. It's the last weekend of April like clockwork around here it seems. The Menard's babies were about 2 weeks old on intake. Their eyes opened a week later, except Leon's. Leon needed extra tlc and intensive care. Then the three monster boys arrived. The church bus lady that brought them said their were just opening. But they were huge compared to the Menard's babies. Amazing what an extra week or two with mother does for the growth of neonate coonies.

Looking at the videos on Youtube of them as toddlers all trying to fit into the cake pan food dish - and to think a short 3 months later they are huge and healthy. None have ever come close to the size of Nip & Tucker though. At release they were both an easy 60 pounds. Guess it was a good year in the Coondo with only two wintering over. They didn't eat much over the winter. Pretty much just left everything frozen for a few days -- they enjoyed the grapes frozen anyway.

Today Hiway wanted to be with me more than other things. She got put back in with Lillian & Benjamin several times but they are sassy today and were ganging up on Hiway. So she stayed with me a lot. We put Shazbot into her outside enclosure and she kept trying to get by Hiway on the outside. So Hiway & Shazbot are roomies for a while today again. Looks like Hiway decided to take a nap with Shazbot and quit pacing up and down for a while.

Yesterday Leon, Louie and Oliver pretty much stayed curled up together -- not using the pool much at all. Kind of strange seeing the pool not be muddy in about two minutes after cleaning it. My apple trees were gracious enough to provide one or two five gallon buckets of apples a day for the babies. Frost hit a few nights ago and the apples are done for the most part - have to go find trees with more close by for them now. Corn's done for the year. It was a pretty good frost the other night. For two nights and days it was in the 30's & 40's. Yuk. But it's been balmy again - even in the 80's -- quite unusual in the Northwoods for September weather. Wonder if that means we have a longer rehab season again this year? Will we rehabbers not get a chance to hibernate again this year?