As you may know, I have raccoons in my backyard. And possums. And stray cats. And hummingbirds. And the amazing thing is that I'm in the middle of an urban area with no nearby parks or hillsides. Still, creatures great and small show up back there to feast on the cat food I put out. Usually, we leave it near the patio door but last night, we put it out by the pool and I got the above snapshot of seven (count 'em — seven) raccoons. The larger one at left is the parent…the mother, I presume. When I'm around, she never takes her eyes off me. The kids don't care much who's around; they're too busy jockeying for position around the food dish, shoving one another aside and occasionally getting into angry squabbles.
This brood has been coming around for a couple of weeks and I've taken many photos of them, but this was the first time I got all seven of them in one shot. If you would like to help me shoulder the burden of feeding these guys, we have links here that will allow you to donate money to this site either via PayPal or by buying something from Amazon. All donations for the next few weeks will be directed not to silly eBay purchases but to Mark's Feed the Raccoons Fund. And believe me: No matter how much you folks give, the way them 'coons eat, it won't be enough.