Raccoons, I say

So did I tell you about our raccoons? No, ok here goes.
Every animal in a three county radius who is hungry or in need finds my house. I have long feared that St. Francis sits on my roof beckoning all in need to come to us.
There have been several feral stray cats that I have taken to the vet and had fixed and I feed them, they hang around the porch and catch the moles and smaller rodents that run around here. So a while back we noticed that they were going through cat food like crazy.

Then one afternoon about 4:30 or so I saw it......the cutest little black masked bandit helping himself to the cat food on the porch. Well, I must tell you, I nearly FLIPPED OUT!!! Because raccoons are supposed to be nocturnal, and not supposed to be seen in daylight hours. I figured it was rabid and just a matter of time before it ate me and my whole family(yes, I admit it, I AM A DRAMA QUEEN).

Ok, so I back slowly into the house and fire up ye ole' Dell Inspiron and surf the 'net looking for some information about raccoons. The information I find tells me that sometimes the pregnant/nursing mother raccoons, and young raccoons are seen in daylight and NOT RABID. So I looked back out the window and yes you could tell it was young, it's tail and body were about the size of my biggest cat.

Here in South Eastern KY we are in the midst of one of the worst droughts we have EVER had.

My wild blackberry patch gave me NO berries this summer and our grass is brown and crunchy. The neighbors apple tree didn't produce much either, likewise for their tomato's and cucumbers.

So I figured that the poor the raccoons were hungry and bought a bag of apples and started setting them out for them. Yes, I know this is a bad thing to be feeding the wildlife, but what are you supposed to do when there is a drought? At least leaving apples for them reduces the amount of cat food that they gobble up.