Today is 'International Day of Older Persons.' It's also 'International Racoon Appreciation Day.' When I thought about it, I realized that all of the older people I have looked up to over the years, like teachers, were probably younger (though they seemed very old to me) in my memories than I am now. That makes me wonder how old I look to the young people in my life. It's good to know I have a 'day' although it's also a little depressing. Being older, I do have a racoon story to share. Appreciation might be too strong a word, but I did have a certain respect for this one. When I was younger (isn't that how all older person's stories begin) and still a homeowner, I had a large rodent problem. A big fat groundhog (I'm pretty sure groundhogs are rodents) moved into the nice dark space under one end of my deck. She also liked to sunbathe on the deck when no one was looking. I knew this by the little presents she left behind. Because I'm basically a kind hearted person, but also averse to having a rodent chew on the power cords for the AC that ran under that part of the deck, I hired an exterminator to set a live trap for the groundhog. Each evening for four days, he bated the trap with pieces of apple, and each following morning there was a racoon sitting contentedly in the trap, eating the apple and waiting to be let out. I wasn't out to get racoons so he was let go to run away. Finally, on night five, the groundhog beat the racoon to the trap and she was caught. The exterminator assured me that the groundhog would be released in a woods far, far away. At that point I really didn't care to pursue the matter. If that groundhog became stew, I neither know nor care.
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