Raccoons r us

I took the dogs for an early morning hike down the trail before leaving for golf. It was the least I do for Suz before I vanished for several hours of shamelessly unproductive recreation. She was busy getting ready for a major landscaping project.

The sun was bright, filtering through the tree canopy. There were lots of spider webs. Some were on my face after I walked through them. Wood thrushes offered up their fluted songs, silently flitting away as the dogs and I moved down the trail.

We reached the top of the steep hill which drops down to the waterfall area of the creek. The dogs took off down the hill and across the creek. Then they stopped, on alert. The was more crunching in the underbrush; something was moving around. I figured it was a turkey or squirrels.

I scanned the area and saw nothing. Then I notice a dark object scurrying up a large tree. It was a raccoon - appeared to be a juvenile. They are cute enough, but they can be ferocious if cornered. Then a high pitched snarling pierced the quiet of the valley. The dogs had apparently cornered another raccoon. The snarling kept on. Gabbie and Tess weren't backing off. I couldn't see yet as I hurried down the hill. My concern was if the dogs persisted too much, the raccoon could inflict some uncomfortable scratches or bites.

When I arrived, there were two dogs facing one petrified juvenile raccoon trapped in the water. In it's haste to get away it had landed in a deep pool of the creek. Only its head was visible above water. It was making enough noise to be mistaken for a mountain lion. But I had heard the sound before, so I knew instantly what was going on. With the coon in the water, the dogs could move in close. But they sheepishly backed off every time another round of snarling erupted.

I coaxed them away from the coon. It slunk from the water, looked back, and gave us a final passing snarl.

We often see coon tracks in the creek bed, but have rarely seen one before. Several years ago, coons were terrorizing our yard at night. We would set out live traps and relocate the trapped ones elsewhere. That is where I became familiar with the hissing and snarling.

Another day, another curious critter encounter in Bittersweet Woods.