The Story of Raccoon

            by Jereme Altenberg

 

         In a place not too far away from you, there was once a big happy family of animals. Down past Lake Anza and the Little Farm, there’s a small path that goes deep into Tilden Forest where the animals once lived all together. But then one animal got out of control. Here is the story of Raccoon.

 

         Deep in Tilden all the animals lived together happily. There were the ducks who enjoyed swimming at Jewell Lake, and the turtles who were best friends with the ducks in Jewell Lake; the deer who grazed all throughout the forest, and the birds who flew alongside the deer to sing to them and keep them company. Raccoon and Squirrel ran with each other from tree to tree playing chase. Everyone got along with each other in the Tilden Forest.

 

 

 

         Also, all the animals loved grapes. They liked other fruits a lot but they liked grapes the most. They all ate grapes and shared them with each other because they knew that it was unfair to hoard all the grapes. Also, every year on April 20th, they would have Grape Day, and all the animals would get together and share their grapes. They would sit together in big circles and pass along their different kinds of grapes. They would pass their bundles of grapes around the circle about four at a time, and the rule was: take two then pass. All the animals in Tilden loved April 20th, and they would walk around shouting out what they had. Turtle would scoot along shouting, “I got red grapes,” and Squirrel would run from tree to tree saying, “I got purple,” and you could hear all the animals, throughout the day, saying, “I got grapes!”  There were always lots of grapes, but they all knew it was important to share, and they got along because of that.

 

 

 

         One day, the day after April 20th, everyone woke up really late, because they were so tired from the festivities the day before. Squirrel was the first one to notice that something was wrong. When she went to bed the night before in her tree, she had left all of her left-over grapes next to her, but when she woke up, they were all gone and only the branches from the bundle were left on her tree. Squirrel was pondering for a little bit about where her grapes could have gone, when Deer came up to her tree.

         “Squirrel, sorry if I am waking you, but have you seen my grapes? I fell asleep with them. And now they are all gone,” Deer said.

         Squirrel told Deer that she was missing her grapes too. Then soon it began to spread throughout the forest; almost all the animals were missing their precious grapes.

         Nobody could find their grapes anywhere, so Squirrel had an idea. She went to find her good friend Raccoon.

         “Raccoon,” Squirrel shouted up the tree. “Raccoon come. We must go run through the trees like we love to do and pick all the grapes. Raccoon, are you there?”

         Squirrel ran up the tree and went to all the branches, but Raccoon was nowhere to be seen. Then she looked down and noticed Raccoon was still sleeping on the ground on the other side of the tree.

         “Raccoon!” she said as she was running down the tree. “Raccoon, why are you still asleep, haven’t you heard what has happened?” When she got down she tapped him on the head.

         “Mrrrahh...What is it?” Raccoon groaned sleepily.

         “Raccoon, something has happened to all of the grapes, and we need to go run through the branches of the trees and pick more for everyone –” Squirrel was just about to finish her sentence when she noticed that all over Raccoon’s mouth there was red and green and purple grape juice.

 

        

         Soon all the animals had come to Raccoon’s tree, where he was still asleep. After noticing the grape juice all over his mouth, Squirrel noticed he was very fat as well.

         “Raccoon you can’t take everyone else’s grapes, it’s not nice and it’s not fair,” Squirrel said to him.

         Raccoon groaned back, “I just really wanted them. I had one kind, then I just needed to have another.”

         “Well, it’s not nice,” Deer said. “You have to share with everyone.”

         After they talked to Raccoon, Raccoon continued sleeping while all the animals went out together to pick more grapes. Soon, just as the sun was going down, they had all picked just enough grapes for everyone, and Squirrel even got some to give to Raccoon. On went the night and all the animals had their dinner and went to bed, pretty much forgiving Raccoon for what he had done.

         But then, the next morning, when everyone woke up, all of the grapes were missing again. Squirrel went out of her tree as soon as she saw this, and again, she found Raccoon asleep at the bottom of his tree with grape juice all over his mouth.

         “Raccoon, you cannot keep eating all of the grapes, it is no fair to anyone else,” Squirrel said.

         But Raccoon just mumbled a careless, “Sorry” and continued sleeping.

         Squirrel was very upset with Raccoon and she called all of the animals for a meeting at the shore of Jewell Lake.

         “We need to do something about this; we need to help Raccoon realize that he is being unfair,” Squirrel told everyone gathered at the shore.

         “I have an idea,” quacked one of the ducks in the lake. “Everyone put your grape really high in a tree, and that way, Raccoon can’t get to them because he is too heavy. Then, after he can’t have grapes for a little while, he will realize how it feels to not have any grapes.”

         So that afternoon, the birds helped everyone put their grapes really high up in the trees. They all went to sleep knowing that Raccoon couldn’t get to them, and they hoped that he would learn his lesson the next day. But when everyone got up, they noticed something was different. All the birds checked up in the trees and all the grapes were still there, but when Deer left to go graze that morning, he noticed something that made him very angry. All of the berries everywhere were eaten. Raccoon couldn’t get any grapes, so instead he ate all of the berries. Deer was so mad, he ran straight for Raccoon’s tree. He didn’t want anyone being unfair in his forest. Raccoon was stealing everyone’s grapes, and then he began taking all the fruit too. He had to put an end to it.

         When Deer got to Raccoon’s tree, he woke up Raccoon and chased him all the way out of Tilden Forest.

 

         He chased him to streets of the Berkeley Hills and yelled, “Never come back again, Raccoon, you are not welcome here!”

        

         And that is why sometimes, late at night, you can see Raccoon in the streets. And often he will knock over your trashcan in search of some grapes to eat. Also, you might see Deer out and about, on patrol in the streets, to keep Raccoon away from his friends and their berries and grapes safe in Tilden Forest.