In the neighbors’ back yard there’s an immense cherry tree; someone told me it was a leftover from the orchard that was here before the houses were built, but ours was built in 1919 and it’s hard to believe the tree’s that old. Anyhow, the cherries—as is common with old fruit trees—are probably not that tasty any more, but we don’t know because they’re way up there and hard to come at, and the wildlife get them first. This evening in the late sun there were two raccoons having cherries for dinner, and I got a couple of pictures.
First, bit of scale. All of these are with the Tamron SP at full 210-mm extension and I should have taken one showing the whole tree—the raccoon would have looked like an ant. They’re actually the size of a medium-small dog.
And unless you’ve got an extra-large or extra-mean dog, you don’t want yours getting mixed up with one. When I was 18 and stupid, I owned a huge, fierce, un-neutered tomcat that attacked anything that moved; it met a raccoon once and cost me hundreds of dollars that I didn’t really have to get it put back together.
Aside from that, there’s really no harm in them. Here’s a closer view; you can see the cherries that led him or her up the tree.
Finally, here’s a profile shot, again with cherries, and also with a rare view of a raccoon tongue in the wild.
