Tooth and claw – 1

Nature is a wonderful thing – a miracle of creation – a gift – an inspiration… and we all love and revere this fragile planet’s wonderful wildlife…

Should you doubt any of this for a moment all you need to do is to get onto the InterWebNet and try to find some inspirational quotation that has anything – and I mean absolutely anything – bad or negative to say about what lives out there in the the great outdoors. Good luck with that quest…

Now – you won’t catch me arguing against Mother Nature. I am – as can clearly be seen – outnumbered and outgunned. I do sometimes think, however, that the fortunate fauna get away with behaviour that would land us poor human saps in big trouble.

Take the cute little critter at the top of this post. He (or she) is a raccoon. Isn’t he adorable?

No – actually he is a little bastard! It is entirely fair enough that – when we are done with our foodstuffs and come to throw out any organic detritus such as peelings and scrapings – the furry little rodents might see that as an opportunity to get a bit of a free feed. I don’t mind that. I also don’t expect them to consume everything that we throw away, but why do they need to spread everything that they don’t want all over the sidewalk?

Our local municipality kindly provides us with a stout little green bin for such waste – with a lid that comes complete with a decently solid catch. That doesn’t deter the raccoons at all. They know how to open those suckers. I have taken to keeping our organic waste bin in the garage, where the raccoons cannot reach it, but our waste is collected early on a Monday morning and the bins must be placed at the end of our drive late on Sunday nights.

Raccoons know what day of the week it is! Dunno how – but they do…

I noticed that our neighbours – who clearly have way more experience in these matters than do I – have invested in some bungee ties to add a layer of protection to the existing bin catches. “Good idea” – thought I and The Girl duly sourced a tube of assorted bungees when next out and about (Canadian expression!).

Tying your bin lid down with bungee ties just annoys the heck out of the raccoons. They managed to get the bungees off and open the catch, but it entailed them kicking the can some fifty yards up the road to do it. Being vindictive little so and so’s they got their own back by spreading the organic waste over an even wider area than usual.

Sorry to have put you out – guys!

Now – annoying as these pesky little varmints are they are far from being the only wildlife that takes something of a frontier approach to living in the same (admittedly huge) space as do we. In a way this is quite a Canadian attitude anyway – so it is at least appropriate.

In the second part of this post I will introduce you to some other charming creatures…