One evening last Spring my husband called me to look out onto the deck outside our kitchen on the second floor of our house. A mother raccoon had apparently taken her new family on an outing to check out the neighborhood bird feeders and our deck was on her list. When she saw me, the mother took one of her babies and climbed down to safety; however, the other six were left sitting on our deck fence. I went out and talked to them and told them they would have to leave. Unfortunately, they did not understand my language, nor did they have any idea how to climb down. My scolding them did not seem to work either. Finally after they had climbed down to the deck floor I encouraged them gently with a broom to go back down the way they had come up--or so I thought.
When they had finally disappeared from the deck, I went downstairs to see if they had left. I found them all clinging to the trellis below, still not knowing how to back down. It took a couple of hours but their mother must have finally come back to retrieve her family. Needless to say, my bird feeders need to be taken in every night or else they are destroyed by my little friends, who by now have gotten to be pretty big.
When they had finally disappeared from the deck, I went downstairs to see if they had left. I found them all clinging to the trellis below, still not knowing how to back down. It took a couple of hours but their mother must have finally come back to retrieve her family. Needless to say, my bird feeders need to be taken in every night or else they are destroyed by my little friends, who by now have gotten to be pretty big.
