Know Your Trash Pandas

The moon hanging heavy above the trees illuminated the pine flatwoods and palmettos, clear enough for him to see a raccoon scamper across the track in front of them.

“Older he-coons wait until near dawn to come out,” Carl had told him at the trading site as John admired his collection of skins to trade. “The younger males get trapped or et by panthers and gators ‘cause they ain’t got no sense.”

--BOOK NINE, maybe titled FOR LOVE OF A SMUGGLER or maybe TREASURE ON THE TIDE, I dunno yet...

Floridians of a certain age may recall the phrase, "The old he-coon walks just before the light of day" and how it helped our late Governor "Walkin' Lawton" Chiles win an election. I was out walking a few mornings back and saw this guy scampering across a neighbor's lawn. It was long past light of day, so he may have had a busy night, or just lacked good sense. 

Racoons are part of the Florida landscape, and these little trash pandas are annoying, but also interesting. They're clever, versatile, scavengers and will decimate your birdfeeders if you don't have a racoon baffle on the pole (trust me on this) but one should not get too close. Sadly, they are also carriers of rabies, and if a racoon is being aggressive towards you, get away from it. You do not want to mess with a sick critter, you or your pets!

In the meantime though, they'll continue to be a part of the Florida landscape and add color to my novels because they were here first, and they're clever enough to figure out how to outlive us all.