These last two were completely different. Goldie, who is a week or two older than Sheila, explored further up into the woods by the banks where they were freed, further up than the other three had. I was afraid she was going off and leaving Sheila behind. Sheila went up the first limb of a tree she encountered and just stayed there wondering what to do next although she was enjoying exploring the tree. Goldie came back, then went into the creek and drank and tested how deep it was. She crossed back over to the other side where Sheila was and who had been watching Goldie the whole time, well, the whole time she could see her. Sheila finally came down out of the tree and the ridge of hair on her back stood up a bit as she confronted Goldie. It looked like Sheila wasn't sure who this coonie was. Goldie, too, did a bit of territorial stancing by puffing herself up. But they sniffed and then both realized that they knew each other and they hopped around in a playful spirit for a few minutes.

That didn't last long. It was back to the serious business of exploring their new space. At least, that's the way Goldie seemed to be taking it. Down to the stream she went again and this time Sheila followed Goldie. From then on, they explored both sides of the creek and kept going steadily downstream little by little. They disappeared out of sight within fifteen minutes. After a few more minutes of not seeing them, Bill and I went back up to the trail and walked down to the bridge. They were down there already.

Sheila was up up a tree. I found her only because debris was falling out of the tree. Then I spied Goldie down in the creek under the bridge. She ran when she heard us on the bridge. That was good. Her natural instincts had evidently taken over. I called out to her and she came back. Sheila came down out of the tree while Goldie made her way up on the bridge. She thought she had left us upstream. We probably confused them by showing up there.

She scampered up on the bridge and came right to me. I picked her up. Then Sheila came up on the bridge. I picked her up, too, for one last goodbye. Bill was filming us and they were apprehensive about him. Their claws were wet and seemed sharper than before. I could feel their excitement and haste. I put them down again. They headed right back down to the water again and kept up their mysterious wandering downstream. Goldie was in the lead, Sheila following. They traversed about ten yards in the water, then went up into the woods and started making their way deeper and deeper into the trees. Then we couldn't see them anymore.

We stayed around for another twenty minutes enjoying the tranquility there by the bridge. When they didn't reapper we made our way back to the car. We didn't see them again. It was like Goldie was on some kind of mission. Maybe she had picked up the trail of the older three raccoons and was following them. She seemed very intent upon where she was going. I felt like we had just witnessed how they first three had explored down the stream. I hope they do meet up with each other again. I think they would all enjoy that.

So, that's how it was so different from the first release. I was rather surprised. The creek meanders all over the place and trees line both sides of it so maybe they found an even better spot downstream where it's less populated with people. Or is closer to garbage cans and the food they are more familiar with. One thing I know for sure is that we will never know.