Can You Feel The Love Tonight

Welcome To My Raccoon Room!

    Raccoons! Man, do I ever love 'em! Oh, I know, they are usually considered pests or worse, but I love 'em anyway. I have a collection of raccoons containing several statues, stuffed raccoons, pictures and posters. But they are kinda hard to collect, cause they are hard to find.

    I guess it started when I was 6 years old. We lived on a farm and the driveway was lined with trees; I think the one with the raccoons in it was the one closest to the house. Anyway, one day a baby coon fell out of the tree, unfortunately breaking it's neck in the process. Soon afterwards, another fell out and my father caught it and put it in a cage in our garage.
    I know. I s'pose it sounds cruel, but us kids thought it was great at the time. We named the coon Candy, because she used to make a soft kinda purring sound when we would give her these caramel-like Brach's candies. She soon held a special place in all our hearts. (Except our dog. She was a rat terrier named Patsy. Candy loved to take a good run, jump on the dog, wrapping all four legs around Patsy, and go rolling....)
    One of the things we liked to do was give her sugar cubes and watch her dip them in her water bowl, swish it in her paws, as they do with anything they eat, and then look for it after it had dissolved in the water! Again, sounds cruel, but was all done in fun.
    Not that Candy didn't pull some good ones of her own. Our screen door had a rounded corner on the bottom that she used to gain entrance to the house whenever she wanted to. My youngest sister, Denise, was about 3 yrs. old at the time, and always sat very close to the tv. (We found out later that she needed glasses.) Anyway, when De was wrapped up in a good show or cartoon Candy would sneak in and take a running jump at De from behind. Denise would scream and Candy would be gone in a flash!
    Candy left us in the autumn when it was mating time, and never came back. I like to think that her decendants are still wandering in the same farmland.     So my memories and thoughts of raccoons are good ones. And I truly think they are adorable!

    To give an official description of raccoons, I copied some information from my Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia:

    Scientific classification: Raccoons make up the genus Procyon of the family Procyonidae. The common North American raccoon is classified as Procyon lotor, and the crab-eating raccoon as Procyon cancrivorus.
    Raccoon, carnivorous mammal, found throughout the United States, southern Canada, and Central and South America, whose head is broad, tapering to a pointed muzzle, and whose ears are short and erect. The body is generally short and plump, with a long-haired coat of fur, and the tail is bushy. The legs are short; each foot has five toes, and the soles are naked. The animal walks on the soles of its feet with the heels touching the ground, similar to the practice of bears and humans. Raccoons are grayish-brown above and light gray beneath, with black cheek patches that narrow into a vertical stripe extending from the space between the eyes to the top of the head. The rest of the face is pale gray, with dark eyes and white whiskers. The tail is marked with six or seven brownish-black rings. A raccoon ranges in length from 0.62 to 1 m (2 to 3.3 ft), including its tail, which is 20 to 40 cm (8 to 16 in) long.
    The common species found throughout the United States usually lives in trees or near ponds and streams of forests close to civilization. During the night it hunts for poultry, mice, birds' eggs, various insects, fish, and frogs. Occasionally it varies its diet with nuts and wild fruit. It is a skillful swimmer. Northern raccoons spend the winter in a den, usually high in a hollow tree, sleeping but not hibernating, and emerging during relatively warm periods. From four to six young are born in a single litter each spring, and members of the same family live and travel together for about one year.
    Another species, distributed from Costa Rica to northern South America, is the agouara, or crab-eating raccoon. This animal is longer than the other species, although the tail is slightly shorter; the teeth are thicker and stronger and the fur shorter. The crab-eating raccoon is dark gray with patches of yellow.
    The fur of the raccoon, especially that of the northern species, has been highly valued in North America since the 17th century. Coonskin caps, and coats and robes made of the coarse but attractive fur, are still worn today. Coon hunting is practiced extensively in the southern United States. (Boy am I happy I live in the North!) The animals are hunted at night with dogs and are usually found near swamps or streams.

This is the second set of graphics I've made by myself!