Those Crazy Raccoons!

It was September 28, 1998. We were living in Long Beach, Mississippi - a few miles west of Biloxi - about 100 yards off the beach itself. Hurricane Georges was nearly upon us and we had brought the motorcycles into the living room, filled up the bathtub with fresh water, and battened down the hatches.

My husband and I were playing Scrabble by candlelight, listening to the fury of the storm when I heard the strangest sound. It was a kind of "chittering" noise and it worried me because I couldn't identify it.

 I looked out the front window and saw the funniest thing EVER. We had a persimmon tree in the yard. The wind was whipping that 10-foot-tall tree so hard it was touching the ground before it sprang back up and blew over to touch the ground on the other side. Clinging tightly to the branches were not one, not two, but THREE adult raccoons - and they were squabbling over the persimmons as well as enjoying the wildest ride of their lives! We watched them for at least ten minutes before they tired of the game (or had eaten enough of our persimmons).

We were lucky. The storm surge didn't hit us, and the Category 2 storm didn't do much damage.  And we will never forget those nutty raccoons!