Animal Family Fun In Mt. Pleasant

My bike ride home from work generally consists of going through parks, trails and wooded areas.  My rule of thumb is to avoid traffic IF you can.  So with that, I drove through Mt. Pleasant Cemetary to catch my breath (HUMIDITY!) and to get away from the congestion of Yonge Street.  While riding towards my exit of the cemetary, I noticed some activity on one of the trees.  A mother raccoon (not seen) had her litter of six cubs out looking for food.

Since Mt. Pleasant is generally quiet, these guys and gals are always out and about trying to grab berries off the trees and whatever food they can salage from garbages.  Despite them being considered 'dirty' animals by society, the cuteness was just too good to pass up.

One of the fun things about this shoot was the curiosity of the raccoons themselves.  Knowing their mother was around, I didn't want to get too close to them and avoid the potential freak out.  On the other side of that though, the raccoon cubs were curious about me and my camera and started to reach their hands out to touch me.  I must have scared them though when trying to step back and take a picture.  But their innocence and curiosity made the experience that much more enjoyable!

 

And for the final shot, one cub saw (as you can tell by facial expression) a few berries next to me and started get hungry! hehe