Animal stories

Encounters with and thoughts about animals from the last few days:

• Raccoons. When I dropped off Ms. Juliet at Kitty Klub Med (aka the Cat Cottage), her caretaker for the weekend told me that she moonlights at a wildlife animal refuge. Apparently the raccoons are very intelligent and make an assortment of noises. Her "when I'm a rich lady" fantasy is to crack their code -- to study their language closely enough to understand it and document it.
• Llamas. This weekend, we stayed at a B&B (lovely) where the owner keeps (or perhaps just lives with) llamas. http://www.bcn.net/llamahike/ Yesterday, he didn't quite have time to take us on a hike himself but he allowed us to take three llamas on a walk through meadows and woodland trails. They're smaller than I remember, and very docile. For the most part, they walk on their leashes like well-trained dogs, giving occasional little shoulder-butts (Richard, their human, says they're "bug rubs"). They made surprisingly pleasant companions on our stroll.  They're social with each other, also make interesting noises, and when at rest, groom and scratch themselves as a cat would.
• Wild turkeys. On our hike, we surprised, and in turn were ourselves surprised, by a family of wild turkeys resting in tall grass near the forest edge. They appeared to be two adults and an adolescent, which I at first mistook for hawks or eagles because of their size. They rose directly up and took off into the woods, magnificent animals.