April 07, 1988 - Campers-Wheat Bread = RaccoonsPage 12A/The Suffolk Times /April 7, 1988
Campers -Wheat Bread = Raccoons
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
I've often written about the antics of
raccoons. One time it was about sum-
mer folks who came out to their cottage
and started a fire in the fireplace and
found a family of raccoons had taken up
housekeeping in the chimney. Then
there was the lady who called about one
Focus on
Nature
persistent raccoon that wanted to get
into her garage and was going about it
by ripping the shingles off the side of
the building.
Then there was the man who kept his
sailboat at a dock and when he took it
out in the bay for a day's sail found a
most disgruntled and somewhat
belligerent raccoon challenging him as
to who rightfully was captain of the
ship. Standing up for his rights the
owner promptly threw the raccoon
overboard with a slight swat of a paddle.
Thinking that was the end of the chal-
lenge, the true captain went below to
check out the interior for possible dam-
age. It's here the story took on an inter-
esting turn. The captain found under one
of the bunks the real reason for the rac-
coon's belligerency. It wasn't a he at all
but a she who had her newborns safely
stowed below in his yacht.
Now what does a person do when he's
tossed a mother overboard and finds
himself left with a family of baby rac-
coons? You'll never guess. He headed
for the raccoon now swimming for land,
scooped up the snarling, sputtering fe-
male in a landing net and headed back
home where he promptly left mother
and babies below with the hatch and
ports wide open. The happy ending of
this tale of high adventure on the sea
was that the mother, disappointed in
n. in's reactions to her behavior, later
took her brood ashore, never to go to
sea again.
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
BABY RACCOON - -Baby raccoons are cute when young but they
grow fast. Many of us have had our problems with this mischievous
roamer.
A Farmer's Night Encounter
Another twist of raccoon behavior
that makes me chuckle every time I
think about it happened when a farmer
up the lane ran into a raccoon under
some very stressful conditions. It seems
most old -time farmers had an outhouse
near the barn so when working outside
they'd not have to track through the
usual immaculate farmhouse when na-
ture called. On one of those late -night
calls, when the farmer was packing
sprouts, he had a raccoon encounter my
We will only partially do justice to.
Having been to this outhouse hun-
dreds of times before it wasn't necessary
for a light and, after all, the farmer knew
the procedure pretty well. He promptly
unbuckled his overalls and let them drop
to the floor. Then he heard a stir and a
growl. A raccoon had occupied the place
and now in the dark things became more
confusing. The farmer fumbled to find
the door but in doing so stepped on the
raccoon's tail, which led to a wild attack
and snarls by the raccoon. This led to
some choice language and a lot of
stomping and kicking which really
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boiled the pot. All the time the farmer
got more entangled in overall straps, old
magazines and, of course, an outraged,
cornered raccoon. In one final, desperate
act of protection the farmer gave a
mighty kick, missing the raccoon but
kicking out the door. The raccoon
headed for the countryside, never to re-
turn to man's so- called conveniences
again.
I'm sure all of you have your own
raccoon stories of garbage cans, garden
destruction, etc. The first few times we
might put up with it but after a while it
gets pretty exasperating. The following
tale is true and just happened to Barbara
and me while we were camping in one
of our state parks.
Raccoons In Campground
We'd been warned to keep all food in
the car and none, of course, in the tent.
Raccoons rip tents open to get at any-
thing that smells the slightest bit inter-
esting. We'd been camping before and
knew about raccoons and their clever-
ness.
Now one of my favorite breads is rye
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We have a new location with expanded facilities
with caraway seeds and I had a wonderful
ham sandwich at noontime and the bread
was still quite visible in one of the
many boxes in the back of the car. We'd
pulled into a new campsite and opened
the car to get out all the equipment
when one of the raccoons we'd been
warned about showed up. We knew what
he was up to; so we showed no mercy
and shooed him away. Feeling quite
confident, we continued to set up camp,
little knowing that the visit was merely
a decoy action. As quick as a flash
another raccoon climbed into the car,
headed straight for my rye bread,
snatched it up and bounded off into the
underbrush. It all happened so quickly. I
made a desperate attempt to retrieve it
but stumbled over a tent line throwing
me into a roll which didn't impress the
raccoon enough even to turn around.
Raccoons Change Their Taste
Well, we learned our lesson. They
wouldn't catch us again. The next day
we went shopping but this time Barbara
bought some wheat bread and when we
got to the tent site and opened the car
we kept our eyes open to make sure
none of the raccoons was about. All
went well until I went to the car to get a
fishing pole and got involved in assem-
bling the pole and hooks for a day's
fishing. That was my mistake. The next
thing knew, out of the corner of my
eye, I spotted a raccoon running away
with Barbara's wheat bread. Well, that
was too much. I had a clear path this
time and a can of beans close by to
throw, so after him I went. First, the
can of beans went flying through the air
but I must say I was off target so he
never even slowed down. My long legs
and the long angle to the woods were in
my favor so I almost caught up with
him. At least this wild act scared him so
much he let the bread go. Success. I'd
saved the second loaf of bread even
though it wasn't rye.
We were camping where the days were
warm and pleasant. We put all the food
in the car, including the bread, but left
the windows cracked to let the air circu-
late. That was our second big mistake.
While we were fishing, the watchful
raccoon returned, climbed up the car,
squeezed through the window, went in
and found Barbara's loaf of bread and
somehow got it out. Later we found the
bread missing and tell -tale raccoon hairs
all over the door opening. We were and
still are a bit ashamed to tell this tale of
woe, yet it is as true as I'm sitting here
writing about it. That raccoon was de-
termined not to give up. I should have
known, for about 10 minutes after I
rescued the second loaf he was back
sniffing about where he had dropped it.
From then on our car was locked
tighter than Fort Knox, even though it
made everything very warm inside. Even
then in the morning there would be
footprints all over the car. They tried
every crack and crevice to get in but at
last we had foiled them. As of this
writing we haven't lost any more bread
but then we're not through camping yet.
Time will tell.
Photography by
Judy Ahrens
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