There is a thief amongst us.
About a month ago I bought a bag of dog food that I would mete out to some of the skinny dogs I would see in rural areas. It was not much, but it looked to be the best meal that some of them had had in some time.
When the rear window of my truck was broken, I unloaded several items to get them out of the way of the window repairmen. The bag of dog food along with my sleeping bag and snorkel gear.
Thursday afternoon I noticed the dog food bag had been tampered with. My thought was a stray cat had probably got into it. Even though I was a bit surprised because it had a seal strip – and cats are not well-known for opening sealed packages. Eat through them – yes. But not open them.
Friday morning I found the bag half way across the patio. Fully open. And empty. Some creature had a good night of eating.
I decided to throw the bag away and put my sleeping bag and snorkel gear back in the truck. That was when I had my own Special Agent Gibbs moment from NCIS. If I had been a crime scene investigator, the first thing I would have looked for would have been fingerprints.
And there they were. On my sleeping bag. I may as well have had a photograph of the culprit.
Well, I do have a photograph. Not one of mine. But here is one of his kin.
What they are is a cousin to the raccoon. Not only do they bear some resemblance to raccoons, they also can get into exactly the same mischief as the raccoons in my Salem neighborhood. Filching dog food being very close to the top of the list.
I would really like to see one. Of course, that would mean staying up most of the night. Like vampires and cats, coatimundi in this area are primarily creatures of the night.
But I will do almost anything to please my readers. Almost.
18 comments:
P.S. Science diet for stray dogs? Seriously? Go to Wal*Mart and buy a 40 pound bag of Ol' Roy. The dogs will be just as happy, and it'll still be a big step up from what they're used to.
Kim G
St. Francis is smiling at you Steve. I heard that God favors the compassionate. Any friend of animals, is a friend of mine.
Saludos,
Francisco
When you get a chance go to the La Venta Museum in Veracruz and wander the grounds. Usually there are coatmundis out during the day. Don't get too close, especially if you happen to be carrying food of any kind.
you can tell by the paw print? are there no mapaches in melaque?
you don't want either in your casa.
zuber
And I like them in all of their forms -- including crabs, snakes, and crocs. Mosquitoes? Not so much.
When they are accustomed to people, they make dogs look like amateur moochers.
Well, I am not certain. But uncertainy takes the edge off of the tale. It could very well be a raccoon. The feet are almost identical.
Raccoons are a possibility. Whatever it is, it has been using the stairwell as a convenient bathroom.
The tejones down here hang out with the raccoons, a nice multicultural pack. There was a misguided gringa in Akumal who was feeding them for several years, nothing the rest of the town said to her would stop her. They would hang out in front of her house day and night, attack dogs that went by, sometimes tourists who thought they were cute, and they multiplied. The more food, the more kids. It was a huge disaster and they were an enormous threat to the turtles nesting on the beach. Eventually she moved away but it has taken years for the population to start to recede, years of them killing small dogs and cats, raiding turtle nests and breaking into garbage. There was a sharp drop in their numbers last year and I suspect one of the locals got sick of them and came up with a solution.
I like baboon, it's a much more tantalizing story, drunk or not.
If you want to attract tejones, just import some gray squirrels to live in your yard. Of course, to keep the squirrels there, you will need a BMW parked in the garage.
ANM
They can be a real nuisance. That is why I would like to keep my culprit as wild as possible. But I would like to see whatever it is.
Ah. My biography reduced to two lines. The essence of poetry.
That little aside is my favorite part of today's post. My drunk acquaintance literally gets angry when people point out that baboons live in Africa. I am surprised that he does not refer to the local pink elephants.
I love that you're supplementing dog food to hungry looking dogs. I do it for a neighborhood dog too and what's even more fun is to buy bones at the carneceria and pass them out to the centro moochers, who also look like they could use a good meal. Good on 'ya, Steve, you have a big heart.
Fortunately, due to the spay and neuter clinincs, the wild dog population is really down. But there are still the "owned" dogs that are under-nourished.
Yes,well remember I had one come in through the fireplace chimney two nights in a row. It went up the chinaberry tree limb onto the roof and into the house.........to the sugar bowl! The tree limb was cut off and no more coatimundi in the house.
Imagine my shock when I tiptoed up the stairs to the kitchen to see what it was and when I turned on the flashlight, headed straight back down the stairs and closed the bedroom door............
Lots iof people keep them as poets. But the wild ones are just that -- wild. I just wish I could see the culprit. So many suspects.
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