Meet Bear

A couple weeks ago I noticed a unique Raccoon appearing in our backyard. A beast of a Raccoon who obviously has seen a lot in his life. His tail is missing. Both his ears are chewed up. His left eye is damaged to some degree as well.

I don't see him every night. We are 2 nights a week so far.

He's not tame by any means, but tolerant to my presence. I believe he sees me as no threat. As long we keep stay a respectable distance from one another, which could be as little as 5 ft, all is fine. Any closer, he's off and running under the shed.

Initially, upon first seeing him, I did have concerns because of how beat up he is. I've watched him a lot, especially that first night. He's alright. He's just an old boy. He's a fighter and a survivor. I think if even some of his battle wounds could be tended to, that's not to be for him. He's come this far on his own. He would not want our help.

I don't say much to him when we cross paths. Maybe a hello or nice to see you. I do my thing. He does his. Maybe I should speak more? Maybe he could get a little more used to my presence just like Topper the Skunk?

He's funny to watch as he sits on his bum while he pulls edible things to his mouth. I witnessed him grabbing a flying moth and gobbling it up.

One night he was laid out on his stomach and again just pulling things to him.

If he could speak, I'm sure the first sentence out of his mouth would be "I've seen a lot of shit!" If I was able to ask him one question, I would really like to know what happened to his tail. Animal tails don't come off that easily, not that I know from experience.

Odd how he just showed up here. I have a pretty good tab on the creatures that come around our backyard. Where did he come from?

I call him "Bear" in my head. I've not said it out loud. I think it's a suiting name for him.

I last saw him a couple nights ago. I was changing the bath basin when I spotted him. He's easy to see in the dark with my head lamp, there's one glowing eye looking at me. Three other large Raccoons showed up over the next half hour. First a lone one. I heard the snarls and growls and thought "oh boy, here we go, it's on!" Then I heard this loud whimpering noise which sounded like a young Raccoon. I thought there was finally some kids coming around. Nope, not the case. I'm squatted down, filling the basin, when this other Raccoon raced past me, almost over me, bombing up the yard. Two seconds later here comes Bear. He was making the whimpering noises, chasing the other. I guess that's his battle cry? The first Raccoon went up a tree.

Bear stopped. Huffed. And then went back to where he was digging around. Not long after, a pair of Raccoons came through the gate, big animals much like Bear. He started towards them. Both quickly went over the fence and into the neighbour's yard.

I will keep watch out for Bear every night. He sure adds to the night life experience.

If you need a bird fix from me, here is our latest blog for Bird Canada that I did this month.