{"id":1231,"date":"2018-06-03T23:14:22","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T03:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=1231"},"modified":"2018-10-28T13:58:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-28T17:58:11","slug":"baby-raccoon-beside-the-gravel-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=1231","title":{"rendered":"Baby raccoon beside the gravel road:"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"\">&#8220;LET HIM ALONE, ALAN\u201d \u00a0(said a voice \u00a0from within)<\/div>\n<div class=\"\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"\">alan skeoch<\/div>\n<div class=\"\">June<\/div>\n<div class=\"\"><\/div>\n<p>I caught the flicker of \u00a0movement on the gravel fringe of the Fifth Line just below our farm. A little ball of something that looked \u00a0alive but barely so. Moving in jerks and starts. \u00a0 \u00a0So \u00a0I braked \u00a0and \u00a0backed up.<\/p>\n<div class=\"\">A baby racoon was \u00a0trying to get nourishment from \u00a0some scrap of \u00a0food. \u00a0It was alone and certainly not in the best of \u00a0health. \u00a0The back \u00a0legs were wet\u2026perhaps from wading through the swamp but also perhaps from something more sinister.<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">I \u00a0did nothing. \u00a0Took these pictures. \u00a0Bade the little fellow farewell and drove away. \u00a0That is \u00a0an \u00a0appropriate\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">action with wild things.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\">years \u00a0ago we were given a baby raccoon that fell down a neighbours \u00a0chimney.\u00a0 Smaller than this raccoon. Tiny. \u00a0We fed it and raised it as \u00a0one of \u00a0our family with the kids, \u00a0the dog and the cat. Ricky the Raccoon was \u00a0personable\u2026loved \u00a0to crawl up our arms \u00a0and perch \u00a0on our heads. \u00a0As warm and \u00a0loving as \u00a0a<\/div>\n<div class=\"\">puppy.<\/div>\n<div class=\"\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"\">But then Ricky became an adult. \u00a0It was sudden. \u00a0He started to bite and \u00a0get hostile. \u00a0He was \u00a0a wild creature and \u00a0wanted to live his own kind \u00a0 of life among his own kind. \u00a0We let him go in a corn field \u00a0and hoped \u00a0for the best but expected the worst.<\/div>\n<div class=\"\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"\">Remembering this \u00a0I drove away.<\/div>\n<div class=\"\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"\">alan skeoch<\/div>\n<div class=\"\">June 2018<\/div>\n<div class=\"\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"9B4A34A2-87CA-47E6-B52A-E5CE337CD255\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_960a8.jpg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"1C14A76A-915E-453A-8D23-D60534298D2B\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_960a9.jpg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"56C17D6D-79EF-4466-8E50-7CBD4CED139B\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_960aa.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;LET HIM ALONE, ALAN\u201d \u00a0(said a voice \u00a0from within) alan skeoch June I caught the flicker of \u00a0movement on the gravel fringe of the Fifth Line just below our farm. A little ball of something that looked \u00a0alive but barely so. Moving in jerks and starts. \u00a0 \u00a0So \u00a0I braked \u00a0and \u00a0backed up. A baby [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1646,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions\/1646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}