RaccoonPage2

                         "Bandit"
Bandit was a young raccoon who live in the Swamps of Louisiana. One day bandit was so lonely and couldn't find his Mother. He look here and there but she couldn't be found.
One day while looking Bandit came into a small town call Cajunville. A town with French speaking people and some of the best food he ever eaten.So bandit decide to make this town his home. So he saw this large old house which look like a good home for him. So he went up to the house to see if by chance he could find himself a home there. But to his surprise the house belong to someone else. There was a family of squirrels living in the old house and they sure didn't want to share it with him.The squirrels had been living in that house for
years and was not about to give it up to a raccoon.
So Bandit just help himself to a small part of the house, but the squirrels gave him no peace.
They try to chase him out by filling his home with all kinds of nuts but the coon was so happy to get so much free food.He was one happy raccoon with his tummy full of nuts.
Well that didn't please the squirrels to see the coon eating
all of their nuts. This made them so mad. So the squirrels tryed chasing out this unwanted guest from their home
by running him off into the swamp but Bandit was not falling for any of this.

He still made his home in the old house .Well the Squirrels
was not to happy with this. So they went to the raccoon and told him he would have to leave. But the raccoon said that this was his home to stay. So one day a very large snake came to live into the house. Well this didn't please the squirrels at all.

But the snake was like the raccoon and was there to stay.
But the raccoon didn't like the snake about as much as the
squirrels did. So the raccoon said to the snake that he would have to go. The coon took it on himself to rid his home of the unwanted snake and he did. So this made the squirrels very happy. So they told the raccoon that they would be please to have him live in the house with them.
Bandit was so happy to be living with his new family.
The squirrel family became his family and he found his place in life and he was not lonely any more. So the house is home to a family of squirrels and one raccoon.
They live happy for the rest of their lives as one big happy family. So the moral of this story is that we all need to look a little closer to our neighbor and maybe that neighbor could become a very close friend and a helping friend.

Friends come in all shape and colors and we never know
how lucky we are to find a new friend so close by.
                                           Written by ShirleyCouvillier

Description:
The mask this little bandit wears is its most outstanding feature. The mask extends across the cheeks, eyes and nose. There is also pale grey bars above and below the large eyes to complete the "mask"affect. The raccoon has a long fine coat and a busy tail with 4 to 7 prominent dark rings. The general colour is a grizzled gray to a blackish color, with the sides greyer than the back. The nape of the neck can be a rusty or rufous colour and the underparts brownish
with a whitish wash. The ears are edged with white or grayish hairs.

Remarks:

This intelligent omnivore will eat almost anything edible including fruits, insects, frogs, fish, small mammals and birds, including their eggs.
The raccoon uses its forepaws and its great manual
dexterity to manipulate even the most complex food sources, including garbage cans, into its diet. In fact raccoons can and do live well in close contact with humans in urban areas. The numbers of raccoon in cities are not large enough to be
considered a problem. It seems that while raccoons can be found throughout the country, our cold winters are the biggest controling factor for raccoon populations. For the most part raccoons will den near water in hollow trees, rock cavities, abandoned animal burrows or any other crevice that will provide some protection.
The major predators include raptors like the great horned owl and mammals such as bobcats, foxes, coyotes.or fishers. Raccoons have one litter a year, from 1 to 7 but usually 3 or 4 offspring.
The young are born in the summer and will stay with the mother during the winter until the next summer.
The male raccoon provides no parental care and will be aggressively chased from the den area by the female.

Hello and Welcome to my second page on Raccoons.
I love these cute little animals so much that I just had to do another page on them.I hope you like my little friends as much as I do.There is something about these little bandits that I love so much.Guess they just so darn cute...enjoy........Shirley