Talking to Crazy Coon

I wrote an article about Crazy Coon. I named him that when I first saw him making continuing trips from the water pan to the food pan and back. I soon realized he was getting the food, soaking it and then eating it. I see this most every night. I’m not positive but I believe it is the same coon each time.

I’ve been trying to get the coons use to me. They are very leery and will run off with any distraction. If I open the door fast the coons run off. By slowly easing the door open when they have their head down eating, or when they are looking in the other direction I can usually get it open without them running off. If I slowly ease up to the door opening I can get there with chasing them off.

Some are more leery than others. If I’m not real careful and slow opening the door and moving to the doorway, some will run off. Others are not quite that leery.

I’ve started talking to them. Some run off when they hear my voice. Crazy Coon seems less afraid.

Last night when I cut the outside light on Crazy Coon was there eating. I eased the door open and eased up to the opening. I started talking softly to him. He gave me some good questioning looks, but did not run off.

Before when I tried to get closer he would run off. Now was the time to try again. I waited until he was going to get another piece of food, the food pan is father away than the water pan, and eased my left foot down to a step. When he came back to the water pan he seemed to look at me a little closer. The next time he went to get another piece of food I eased my right food down to the step. He paid little attention.

A dog barked across the road and got his attention. I slowly sat down in the doorway with my feet on the steps. Success at last! I had not been able to get here before. I talked to him while he was feeding for about a minute. He looked off a second and something from another direction disturbed him. All of a sudden he ran off.

I see that at least some of the coons can get use to me. Maybe others will in the future. I do enjoy watching them and seeing how they react to different things. I’ll keep learning more as I go along.

I’ve published a photo of Crazy Coon as he was dipping his food in the water pan. He ususlly drops the food into the pan and then eating it. The photo can be seen by clicking on the link below.

http://www.gather.com/viewImage.jsp?fileId=3096224744355253&memberId=67122