The "And Yet, Another Story From "The Scribbler"

It was unordinary day.  Reading a story in my local newspaper written by my favorite columnist , Jack Brubaker, "The Scribbler."  His title for his column today read: "Matching wits with rascally - and smart - raccoons."  Jack is great at making you feel as if you are a part of his column and today I felt as if I was visiting with him and his raccoons in his story he was telling.  He began with... Raccoons can open 11 of 13 complex locks on one box in fewer than 10 attempts.  These locks include bolts, hooks, lift latches, levers and other devices that must be manipulated in a precise order to open a box.  Those are the extraordinary results of a lengthy study by the ethnologist H.B. Davis in 1907.  So it's no surprise that a securely fixed metal cap could be removed from a can of bird seed.  The seed was spread all over Jack's deck at his home.  The birds and squirrels must have had a delightful time as well as a merry picnic.  That is, after the raccoon stuffed himself.  Raccoons are the only animals in our woods with paws agile enough to unlock a metal can, turn it over and create havoc.  To prevent a repeat, they brought the can inside the house.  Well, their bird feeder is hoisted high in the air, several feet below the eve of their roof, to keep squirrels from staging raids.  This is a pulley system, with the hoisting rope coiled around a hook at the edge of the deck floor.  The rope that pulls the bird feeder up and down is extra long, since Mrs. Scribbler doesn't like to cut a good piece of rope, so they have a significant coil by the hook on the deck beneath the feeder.  One morning last week they found the coil of excess rope stretched as far as it would go, across the deck and a gravel path and down a few steps toward the Little Conestoga Creek.  Well, there could only be one reason for this...a dexterous, devious, devilish raccoon who decided to haul the rope as far as he could, hoping he would shake down some food.  The Brubaker's know where the raccoon lives, apparently with a small family in a nest in a cavity about 30 feet up the trunk of an ash tree about 30 feet from their house.  They just happened to see two of the masked bandits peeking out from the tree a few months ago.  The Scribblers live on a bluff overlooking the creek and are accustomed to watching a variety of wildlife wander through the nearby woods, along a tree-lined path that runs along the water.  Here they see a variety of creatures including, deer, foxes, groundhogs, muskrats, beavers, snakes and skunks.  Wasn't long ago that Jack and his wife spotted a mink.  It streaked from the woods, across a neighbor's yard, to the edge of the creek.  It was sleek and ultra-thin and stared at Jack.  

They traded stares for over a minute and then the creature dropped to the ground and scooted off into the water.  The mink was special, but the rope-tugging raccoon was the hit of the show.  It would be interesting to have a conversation with an animal that can open locks, pry lids off metal cans and tug ropes as far as they'll stretch.  Hey, why couldn't they write their own book, telling how everything in the woods is done?  It certainly would be an interesting conversation one could have with an animal that can open locks, pry lids off metal cans and tug ropes as far s they'll stretch.  And, I'll bet the raccoon would remember such a conversation.   Multiple studies have been done stating that raccoons can remember the solutions to complex tasks for at least three years.  So, It certainly would have remembered when it swipped all of "The Scribbler's" bird seed.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS. - If you don't subscribe to Lancaster's newspaper...you need to do so, just so you can read Jack's articles that he writes for the newspaper.