I've Failed You...

Oh dearest Cubicle Buddies.

I am so very sorry.
I've failed you as a friend and, well, as a cubicle buddy.

I've been away for so long and that was not fair.  So, I will make it up to you and
post for you something I hope you will enjoy.

Last week we were camping and had a few 'adventures' with animals.
My daughter asked after one of the adventures what I thought was our best animal story.  I looked at her because I didn't understand until she started listing off all the ones she remembered.  And oh my.  We DO have a lot of animal adventures!

So you can vote if you like, but here are all the ones I can remember and I will add if I remember more when I'm trying to fall asleep tonight.  You know...when you are almost asleep and you suddenly sit straight up in bed because you remembered something.  I do keep a pen and paper by my bed for these moments.

Okay.  My list (in no particular order):

1.  We got together at the zoo for my niece's birthday party one year.  After a yummy lunch we all got a cupcake.  Charlotte, who was 2 at the time, set her cupcake down to run around with her cousins.  She turned to come back and take a bite out of her cupcake but instead was just in time to watch a seagull swoop down out of the sky and scoop it up in it's beak.  There were a lot of tears shed and a few years later she is still talking about 'that time at the zoo'.

2.  We were in the park having KFC take out with the kids.  The ducks were rather friendly and the girls were getting scared so we sat them up on top of the picnic bench so the ducks weren't nipping at their feet while they were trying to eat.  So Ryanne, who was about 4 yrs old, is eating her chicken drumstick when a duck flies up and hovers perfectly in front of her face and nips at the chicken she's holding up to her mouth.  We were frozen!  Then scared it off.  I've never seen anything like it!  Fortunately my kids do not have a huge fear of ducks now...  But it makes me wonder...is a chicken eating duck almost like a cannibal?

Raccoons.  Need I say more?  My goodness those animals!  I remember walking past the display of raccoons at the zoo and thinking 'Why would I want to stop and look at them?  I see them way too much when I'm camping!'.  But I will say more as a few of the adventures my daughter told involved them. 

3.  We camp a few times a year in our tent trailer.  We are pretty good about keeping our food in the van or throwing out our garbage around dusk.  But we have met a few brave raccoons along the way.  While camping in Gatineau park we were stuck between a raccoon coming out from under our trailer on the way to the picnic bench where we were cleaning up our corn on the cob dinner.  I couldn't put the kids in the trailer because the raccoon was standing in front of the door.  I couldn't put them in the van because I didn't have the keys on me.  So I shoved them in the bike trailer that was right beside me and buttoned up the flap.  Then hissed at the raccoon.  It did not want to leave.  Finally Dave growled at it and it slowly started to back away.  But it really wanted those cobs of corn!

4.  We cleaned up our site last week before heading to the beach.  We left one' super hard to open' tupperware container on the picnic bench filled with muffins.  I figured it was so hard to open no smell would be leaking out to attract animals...plus..it's the middle of the day!  As we returned to our site we saw a man stopped at the road taking pictures of our site.  He laughed when I got there and said 'That raccoon is enjoying his lunch!'.  Yup, the raccoon had pried that tupperware open and was sitting in our dining tent enjoying my muffins.  I checked out the container.  There were a lot of paw marks on it so at least I have the satisfaction of knowing it took a long time before he got it open.

5.  Same camp site.  We had our friends on our site for dinner.  So 5 of us and 4 of them.  That's not a small group...or a quiet group for that matter.  We were talking and laughing and then suddenly heard a weird rustling sound by the the fire pit about 4 feet away.  We all turned at the same time to see a raccoon running away with our bag of buns that had been on a little table beside the fire.  Again!  In the middle of the day!  Large group of people sitting 4 feet away!  Jokes on the raccoon though...the leftover hot dogs were sitting right beside the buns....

6.  Another time, we had cleaned up dinner and had just started our campfire.  We'd forgotten that we hadn't put the garbage in the van to take up to the main garbage later.  We were sitting enjoying the quiet when we heard a rustling and looked to see the white garbage bag dragging across the ground and up a tree.  The raccoon dragged it up there and we had to listen to him rustling through the bag for the rest of our peaceful campfire.  The next morning we thought we'd find the bag on the ground...but it was still up there in the tree. 



Share any crazy animal adventures please!  I'd love to hear what others have experienced because I think other then the duck story...ours are pretty tame.  :)