Ladies, if you think your husbands or boyfriends are predictable, they have nothing on our nightly visitor. When we first arrived, it took some time for us to settle in and get acclimated to our new surroundings. The quiet, the pitch black at night, the wildlife, etc. I suppose it took some time for the wildlife to get comfortable with the new intruders from California as well. The deer used to scatter when we went out or when they saw Lucy and heard her tags jingling. Now they look up at us and then go right back to grazing. They’ve even learned to coexist with Lucy – they give each other the look and go about their business. We have a family of four that live on our property. We suspect that number may grow this summer with the bucks that were visiting several weeks back – more on that later.

There is one creature (I think it’s just one) that has never adjusted to our presence and lets us know we are intruders – every single day. There is a racoon that likes to leave us a gift right in the middle of our driveway. I am not kidding, it’s in the middle of the driveway every single day. We’ve never actually seen this racoon, but we know it’s there. Now I don’t know how many varieties of racoons there are, but this one is of the ninja variety. This elusive creature has somehow manged to evade the security camera. We see deer, we see cars driving by, we see the UPS and FedEx trucks pulling in, but no racoon.

We are both really curious about this little masked thief. Although he doesn’t actually take from us, he leaves something for us – clearly sending either us or our dog a message. I had this great idea a couple of weeks ago that maybe if I left some dog food in the driveway, we could catch a glimpse. They always say not to leave food out or the racoons will eat it, right? WRONG! Either this ninja racoon was on to me or it didn’t like the brand of dog food we buy. I was sure it would work! I couldn’t wait to see the pics – but nothing.

While getting ready to take the trash out, I grabbed a container of blueberries that were past their prime and I was just about to toss them when the light bub went off! Berries! Of course! That will work! Ninja racoons love berries! So that night, (yes I waited until dark) I took the blueberries and strategically placed them in the driveway. I could not wait until morning to see the blueberries all gone.

The next morning when JD went to get the trash can he came back with his report. “Blueberries are all still in the driveway”. WHAT? How can that be? I was sure that would work, ugh! I was so perplexed – I spent way too much time thinking about it. What could I have done? My feelings were actually kind of hurt that this dumb ninja racoon didn’t want my gift! Racoons like shiny objects. Should I have put them on a piece of aluminum foil with the shiny side up? Should I have sacrificed an earring or something? That’s it, I’m not wasting anymore time on this. We will just have to continue to artfully dodge the daily “gifts” that are left in our driveway each day.

Well, wouldn’t you know it. Once I quit worrying about it, the blueberries disappeared! I haven’t seen the pictures yet, but I will keep you posted. Hopefully it’s a good shot of a racoon feasting on blueberries!