Rocky Raccoon

     Today's "Thing that popped into Jacki's head and made her laugh out loud so that she looked like she was on drugs to everyone around her" is brought to you by the humble raccoon.

     See, we've discovered, with the help of modern technology (the future is now!) that a raccoon has been stealing all the birds' food.

He ain't even sorry.

      So, naturally, Amanda has decided she wants to feed him and love him and keep him forever as an outdoor pet (I, for one, have little to no trust for raccoons since I saw a show once about how they can open almost any container you put in front of them. The combination of adorableness and ability to open a bottle of poison to put in your food is one I generally dislike).

     Anyway, so she asked me to do a quick googling and figure out where raccoons live. And after finding the answer (dens, hollow spaces in tree trunks, POSSIBLY YOUR ATTIC, in case you were curious), I kept reading and found this gem:

"The raccoon uses the fingers of its forepaws to feel around. As it feels around, it sometimes finds food. That’s how a raccoon can catch fish without even looking. A raccoon often stares straight ahead as it puts its hands into the water. It holds its hands there until it feels something move." (animals.howstuffworks.com)

      And then I died laughing. Because that's a funny enough factoid to begin with -- I mean what kind of hunting strategy is that, raccoon? To stick your paws in the water and just space out while you wait for some dumb fish to bump into you? -- but when you add in the fact that raccoons look like they're constantly preoccupied with something and that mental image becomes hilarious.