Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! part 2

I last left you with tales of girl's camp and critters galore - most of them actually harmless.  The skunks and raccoons were also I suppose harmless, but they did create a fair amount of mischief and mayhem.

Since raccoons are common in this area, we knew to put any kind of foodstuffs in cars at night.  But that doesn't mean that sometimes someone didn't forget!  The first couple of nights were okay, but the next night one of my tent mates forgot about the trail mix baggie that had been passed out to everyone.  When she heard the raccoon right outside the tent, she suddenly remembered.  Plucking up her courage she hit the tent where the noise was coming from, with accurate aim to where the raccoon was on the other side!  He left and did not return.

I slept through all of this excitement.  But sometime around this time the skunks joined the fray.  I could smell them strongly, enough that it permeated my sleep.  I remember thinking how smelly they were, but I was in the tent and they were outside so I may as well sleep.  (Do you get a sense of how exhausted I was?)

The next morning revealed that we had forgotten to empty our late night garbage -now spilled and pillaged, and that we had left a few snacks inside the supply tent - also now pillaged and smelling strongly of skunk.  The front of the supply tent remained smelly for the rest of camp.

But the real excitement came the next night.  Some first-year campers had neglected to secure some beef jerky.  The raccoons sniffed it out in no time, and at least five of them joined the party!  Several 12-year-old girls in a tent together did not appreciate the raccoons outside of their tent!  They quickly became hysterical.  Their leaders were in a nearby tent, but could not get to them, being pinned down by the same raccoons.

The ensuing conversation (if you could call it that) could be heard all over camp.  The girls were screaming and screaming.  They begin to call for the male leader (we'll call him Mr. Brown) two campsites over.  Again and again we could hear, "Mr. Brown!!!!!  Help us!"  And then after a "1, 2, 3," all of them together yelled, "MR. BROWN!!!!!!!"  The problem was that for that evening another man had pitched his tent beside Mr. Brown's with the advance apology that he was a snorer!  So, Mr. Brown had put in ear plugs and was snoozing away, oblivious to anything transpiring.

The girls continued with "They're going to eat us!"  Followed by a calm leader voice saying, "No, they don't eat people.  It's okay, girls"  Then there was the, "Mr. Brown had a gun.  MR. BROWN, BRING YOUR GUN!!!!"  The leaders, in between trying to help calm the girls, were laughing hysterically by now!  The dialog went on in one form or another for a good half an hour.

Can you see now why the skunks and raccoons needed their own blog?  Skunks and raccoons, Oh My!  (And what good material to tuck away for later.)