My Deer Buddy

My deer friends Buddy has a problem with his jaw. A mean male deer that wandered in has picked on all the male deer here. The males and females all walk away when he’s here and stay away from him the best possible. I feel sorry for my friend because he has a hard time eating, the food falls out as he chews. He’s very gentle with all the babies and females. He is a very mellow deer like all the deer here except that one mean deer that has come here. I’m sure he might be a nice deer when it’s not mating season and the hormones get the best of him. I’ve watch the deer here when they do there fighting. They never try to hurt each other and when they get tired they take a break. My other friend I called Buddy too would be so gentle with the young deer around mating season. The young baby would come up to Buddy and lock antlers and push lightly and back up letting the young deer win. Every now and then there are real special deer that are great leader and great with the herd. I hate seeing the deer suffer but I’m not going to harm them in anyway like someone told me to do.

 

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My Raccoon Friends

 

		Raccoon Family II VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

This is my second raccoon family. This family has one albino baby girl while my other raccoon family has a albino mother and normal looking babies. I’ve been following the two families, the mothers families, grandmother and grandfather over many years now. Raccoons are vary shy creatures but after getting to know them they are very interesting to watch. They like to play with each other. When the families get together they all like playing together jumping and rolling around. They sniff each others nose and now each other then start playing like it was a old lost friend. When grandmother comes around and the two families are here it’s a sight to see with everyone playing. The kids all jumping over grandmother because they are so happy to see her. I really enjoy watching them interact with each other and me.

The skunks have been here for many years now as long as grandmother grandfather raccoon. The skunks have been around a lot more where I’ve been able to interact with them even petting them or feeding them by hand. They don’t stink like people ask me, in fact they are very clean. Each one has it’s own personality. Some are shy while others are explorers. The three new babies this year were a treat. It’s much better then in past years where I’ve had up to 36 skunks running around with one male turkey that would chase after them. I’ll sit on the porch with my little friends as they come over to see who I am. I’ve had babies go to sleep on my feet before or next to me. One runt would come over to me and hide behind me challenging all the other bigger skunks. My skunks don’t have rabies and for the most part never would. That a myth that people say when they don’t know any better. They don’t spray each other or me that’s another myth too.

Out of all the little night creatures the possum is the shiest one. With it’s little round ears constantly moving around listening for danger it reminds me of the movie “Baby.” I’m just waiting to hear a squeaky voice. I’ve found out that putting you hand up to your head and turning it twice it’s a greeting to the raccoons. Must mean I’m a friend or something because they look at me and wait to run but stop that action and start eating with no worries after greeting them.

		Other Night Buddies VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Mr. Friend and Me

Sitting out with Mr. Friend having a talk about how the forest is doing. Not so well he says, things are all dried out and no native foods for the deer to eat. All the European grasses are dead and no native grasses anymore.

Native grasses would be green right now because the roots go down 12 feet. I’m going to have to be collecting more seeds and get this place green again. Been having sages moving in and plants from the valley moving up the hill. Have several grasses that grow around rice fields growing here.  I’ve found some great info on plants and pests at: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/

Smiley coming to see where I am since I haven’t been able to walk so well lately.

Babies! Little wonders of energy

Was putting cat food on the porch because I could hear the skunks tapping their feet to protect the food. That’s when I saw the little baby skunks. I don’t know if this one female is the mother or if she adopted them. They sure do hang out with her for the most part but it’s not like how I’ve seen past mothers. Last night one of the little ones snuck in behind me. I saw the little thing moving off to my left but never thought the baby would go in the house. Most of the time they stop at the door but not this explorer. It came in went under the desk and followed the cables from the computers going along the wall. One thing I’ve found out is you can’t push a skunk along. I don’t know where this skunk came from and if one of my females had babies. My skunks are nice and healthy and don’t have rabbis.

 

Tiny baby behind the the desk. Too many wires to reach in and grab the baby. There’s little burs stuck in the it’s fur. The baby spent about an hour checking out the place. I remember one time a few years back when a baby came inside and laid down under the table and went to sleep. Back then I would leave the door open as I ran in and out of the house but I got tired of the bugs coming in. Today I try to keep the door closed as much as I can but there’s always a sneaky one that gets in. Then there’s the tiny bugs that fly right through the screen door. Those are the most annoying ones I found to deal with.

      Mom has some missing fur, that’s because she was getting burs stuck in her fur. As she cleaned she would pull so hard it would pull the hair out. I’ve got them in my hair and pulled out a bit of hair getting them out. Every night she would come running up here and every night there was burs in her fur. I’ve cut the weeds down and ran over everything with the lawn mower grinding up everything into little bits.

Going to be nice training new babies. So far the babies have come up to me and come up when I’m calling them. I lost one skunk last week due to a pit-bull attack. There was too much damage to save the Little Buddy. She had a broken back and a large hole in her back end. I tried cleaning everything out of the open wound but the opening was just to big to repair. It removed an organ and that could be put back together. She looked so happy as we went to the vets, I had to take a picture of her for memories.

In memory of my Little Buddy.

 

Flickr Tags: Skunks,baby skunks,babies,circle of life

For a moment, it all makes sense.

trying to clear ones mind from thinking about impending doom is really hard. I’ve told others how to think through it but the rules never apply to you, right? You want to stop the thought playing over and over in your head but there’s no breaks. Even doing things you need to do become hard to do and you have to force yourself to do them. Nothing even a bright sunny day can seem to cheer you up. Your watching TV and the show now run into each other, same stuff different channel, doctor saves life in last ten minutes. Bad guys get caught in the last ten minutes. All the problems you watched unfold get solved in those last ten minutes but before that the characters are totally lost for direction.

Then there’s an inspirational moment. I was near the door and heard what sounded like geese flying in formation, loud and very close to me. Crawling to the door I look out, it’s my girls babies. Four baby raccoons so cute, so small and mom is bringing them out to the world for the first time. The babies looked at me calling for them, “Babies.” That’s what all the little babies names have turned out to be since they grew up and now are here as adults. The albino raccoon had here babies. None are albinos like her, that light gray color but they are cute baby raccoons. One could fit in the palm of my hand. The innocents of the forest is here and I get to enjoy it.

Mom and the babies are at the back of the house now and I brought them several plates of food. Coming back, in the shadows I see what looks to be a cat, could it be Ms. Kitty come back to see me. It’s a little fox looking at me. I motion for the fox to come over to the porch and the fox ran up. The skunks are too busy eating to notice one more mouth. They are laying down eating enjoying the cool night air and a plate of food. They sure like pasta out of every thing.

Now that is making me smile. For a brief period I’m out of my mind and thinking about something else. I can use that to help break the spell of depression. This has turned out to be a nice night. The pain is gone for a moment.

Smarter then you think

This morning was very interesting. One of my forest deer friends, Mr. Friend, I call him, came up on the porch and I saw him sticking his head into the bag of bird food called scratch. I didn’t bother him and went over to do something. When I came back he was in the yard with his deer friend standing there. I opened the door slowly and came on to the porch greeting my deer friends. They were both smiling and happy to see me. As I stated filling up a couple coffee cans with scratch they walked over to the table where I usually put the grain. I walked over to the table, Friend was standing at his favorite place at the end of the table the other deer was behind a bush sneaking a peak being shy. I poured the first can out in front of Friend and he started licking up the grain not paying to much attention to me pouring out the second can. There you go guys, I said. Friend lifted his head, smiling and gave me a wink with his left eye. The other deer hungry was sneaking up watching me walk away until I was back on the porch. I signaled to him gesturing my hand, making a come over like sign, I said, “it’s Ok.” He walk past Mr. Friend around the end of the table ducking under the bush branches to the side of the table. He stepped on the bench with his front legs and began eating. The guys were happy and I went back in the house to get ready to run to town.

It’s really great having these friends and watching them to see that they are smarter then people think. They are more then just animals but fathers, brother, mothers and babies of a extended family. I’m so grateful to have my forest friend except me. To watch the babies grow up. To see the mothers express love for their little ones and the babies loving their mother.

One rainy night I saw a young scared deer come up there was a pile of seed on the ground next to the walk. Buddy the leader of the herd came up and started licking him pulling the little deer’s head close into his neck. The young deer began licking him back. Buddy had his head over the little deer’s neck and was licking the other side of his neck holding him close to him. If that’s not love I don’t know what it is because it sure looked like they were expressing some thing.

This was a first

Today was a first, all the female deer and the babies came up close to me.  There are 5 babies here and some teenaged deer and all the mothers. Having them come right up to me was something totally new. There’s still a couple that hang back a little. Sonny Boy is the only male here and he came up close but stood to the side. Not they are going through there pecking order without me standing out there with them. I’m not sure but I thing one tiny baby might be an orphan. I’m not sure why they are acting this way today unless they smell the bear that’s been around.