Last week Disneyland/Universal Studios in Hong Kong re-opened after being closed due to COVID-19 concerns. Next month in Orlando, the NBA will resume play with the teams staying at Disney resort hotels. By December, plans will have been finalized for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and Epcot International Festival of the Holidays 2020. Disney theme parks, Disney television, Disney theaters, Disney cruise lines, Disney publishing.
As the mind-numbing song has it: It’s a small world after all—except when it comes to Disney’s ubiquitous place in it.
The news stories remind me of a thought I had last week: Becky came up the path from the woods telling me she saw a fawn in the underbrush and wondered if it might be the one we saw last week tucked against the wooden fence out by the garden. She had been in the woods searching for signs of the baby raccoons who have been visiting us daily.
“You know,” I said, “Baby raccoons and spotted fawns—it’s like a Disney movie around here.”
And it’s true. Cute little animals are a constant presence where we live, especially this time of year. A reasonable comparison could be made between our place and the setting for a Disney movie. Around our property, though, it might be more like a Disney movie directed by Tim Burton.
First, of course, is the presence of the Mouse. Actually, it is more like Mice. Now that summer is upon us, they are outside for the most part. But every autumn we start noticing rodent evidence. By the time Christmas rolls around and we are readying for the holidays, the gnawed decorations and the boxes used as nests make it clear that Micky, Minnie and their extended family have be squatting in our basement.
As summer moves in and the mice move out, the chipmunk hordes begin to swarm. Chip ’n Dale and their cohorts particularly enjoy frolicking in our flower beds. They also spend considerable time burrowing under our house. The positive takeaway, I guess, is that they don’t have much interest in our vegetable garden. That area is the domain of Thumper the rabbit.
And then there are the deer. We accepted long ago that growing fruit trees is a charitable act on our part considering the branches and buds provide food for the many deer that reside in the nearby forest. In addition, our fences and garden boxes have become a much needed day care center for Bambi’s mother to drop off her tiny spotted fawns. Twice we have stumbled upon a Bambi curled up as still as a concrete garden gnome. (Now that I think of it, the gnome near our house could be a stand-in for any of the Seven Dwarves.)
Once in a while we spot ducks in our pond, and we are good with that. But the Canada geese are another story. They are messy, aggressive and annoying pests. Not cute Disney animal material, for sure. Donald, Daisy, Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck: yes. The beer-drinking, cigarette-smoking, tuque-wearing McKenzie Brothers from the Great White Canadian North: no.
The baby raccoons and their mama have been a daily nuisance for awhile now. Our bird feeders are as close to a free lunch as they can get. We have yet to devise a barrier raccoons can’t overcome. My brother, the hunter, suggests a .22 rifle, but for us that would be a decision fraught with moral implications which we are not ready to deal with. Besides, have you ever had a little fur ball baby raccoon look you in the eyes? Talk about a candidate for a major Disney character.
Norman Knight, a retired Clark-Pleasant Middle School teacher, writes this weekly column for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected].
