Heckie, Sheldon, Veronica, Porgy and Bess

I’m taking a break from submitting and writing to do some writing.

Busman’s holiday, I guess.

Some readers may remember the NextStage Evolution Facebook page. It’s long gone and it was probably best known for the wildlife pictures and stories there. Susan (I mention her on the About Joseph page) and I have been working with the wildlife in our backyard going on ten years at this point. One of our regrets about taking down the NextStage Evolution Facebook page was taking down all those wildlife photos.

Over the years we’ve worked with raccoons, skunk, opossum, deer, northern and eastern woodlands coyote, red and gray fox, turkey, fisher cats, bobcats, various owls, bumblybees, hawks, spiders and I’m sure I’m leaving some out (please forgive me).

I’ve written about the wildlife interactions in several places. Perhaps best known is Nothing Ever Dies of Old Age in The Wild. Much of the wildlife in our yard have learned to take food from my hand. Bart, an owl from a few years back, would perch in a nearby tree when I was grilling and wait for me to toss him bits of meat (don’t tell Susan. She always wondered why some steaks shrunk so much when I grilled them).

The wildlife still comes. There hasn’t been as much this year. We had two regular raccoons, Hecate and Deneb, and never saw any trace of other wildlife. One year we had 19 raccoons in our yard, three skunk, two red fox and their kits, some gray fox and their kits, a deer, …

But not this year. I asked Hecate where all the raccoons were and she said, “There are three of us.”

I didn’t know what she meant. Did she have two kits? Were there only three adult raccoons in a woodland area that once supported raccoon colonies?

A few nights later Hecate and Deneb were eating some peanuts and yep, a third raccoon, Leopold, came forward. Shy at first, then getting right in there with his peers.

Then we saw Kirkpatrick, an amazingly healthy northern coyote.

We’d been hearing coyote for several nights (quite soothing) and wondered if that explained the dearth of wildlife.

Then we saw some gray fox and a bob (sorry, they’re quite shy. No pictures yet. Haven’t even told me their names).

Okay, that variety of predators, perhaps few scavangers have made it to Fall.

Then Olivia the Opossum showed up (again, no pix yet). The next night she brought her partner, Max (nope, both shy).

And then

7 Responses

  1. […] mentioned in WildLife – Heckie, Sheldon, Veronica, Porgy and Bess that we have lots of wildlife in our yard. We encourage it. People who knew me in my NextStage days […]

  2. […] in point, about a week back I noticed that Bess wasn’t joining her mother and siblings when I put out peanuts, dog food and cookies. I saw […]

  3. […] But this post is about my dinner with Opie (extra points to anyone who knows the homage) and more correctly, a gathering of The Old Ones for dinner. First up, Opie (if you know him well, he’ll let you call him “Oaps”. I don’t recommend it without his permission, though. Remember Ophelia‘s advice) and Sheldon. […]

  4. […] Hecate, last year’s racoon mother, is showing up once again, daily. We know she has kits, she’s not deigned to share them with us yet. No pics yet. […]

  5. […] mentioned in The Chuckster that Hecate hadn’t shared her kits with […]

  6. […] She’s always the last to come forward, the first to leave. I worry for her. You may remember Bess from a few years back. She didn’t make […]

Joseph Carrabis, Author Shopping Cart
I feel so empty...
Writing Mentoring


Interested in taking your writing to the next level? Want to take a class with other writers and authors perfecting their craft?
Check out Writing Mentoring.
Classes are held on Wednesdays. Each session starts the first Wednesday of the month and ends the last Wednesday of the month. Morning and evening classes available.

Are you a Member? Would you like to be?
Subscribers! Want to be Interviewed?
Sorry, this content is available to paying subscribers only


Watch previous interviews to learn what they’re like.

History
Tagalicious
About Me Americana Analytics Ecology Anthropology A Tale of the Northern Clan Atmosphere Author Interviews Author Tools Bear Bees Behavior Betrayal Birds BizMediaScience Blurbs Body-Mind-Spirit Book Blogs Character Childhood Trauma Children's Stories Chipmunk Conflict Cons-Fairs-Expos Contest Covers Coyote Cozy Murders Creative Non-Fiction Crime Comedy Crime Thrillers Critiques Crow Cymodoce Deer Description Dialogue Economy of Meaning Editing Emotions Empty Sky Espionage Expanded Awareness Experiments in Writing Exposition Fains I Fantasy Fiction Flash Fox Gable Smiled Gel Ink and Rollberball Gender Gothic Romance Great Opening Lines Hanging Tree Harvey Duckman Hawk History Horror Humor Identity iMedia Interpersonal Relationships know Language Learnings Library of Congress Life Linguistics Literature Lively Discussions Lizard Love Story Magic Realism Marketing Mayhem Midnight Garden Midnight Roost Military Mood Music Mystery Myth Narration Neuroscience Newsletters Noir Non-Fiction Old Ones Opossum Owl Pace Performance Artist Personal Finance Personal Improvement Personality Philosophy Plot Podcast Poetry POV Psychology Rabbit Rabbit Hole 5 Rabbit Hole 6 Rabbit Hole 7 Raccoons Readings Recovery Triptych Relationships Reviews Revision Ritchie and Phyl Rob and Joan Carter Romance RoundTable Scenes Science Fiction Search Self-Discovery Self-Help Setting Skunk Snake Social Sociology Spider Spies Spirituality Spoken Word Sports Stating the Obvious StoryCrafting StoryTelling Structure Style SubStack Susan Tag Tales of the Woods Tales Told 'Round Celestial Campfires Tension Terrorism That Think You Do The Alibi The Augmented Man The Change Zone The Goatmen of Aguirra The Inheritors The Shaman