Isn’t it cute?

We found the little raccoon — nicknamed Rocky, of course — seen above eating bird seed on our deck early yesterday morning. Its nose was covered in it. Then it spent the day snoozing high up in a pine tree beside our deck. We took pictures from the deck as it was coming down the tree in the evening.

We don’t mean to feed raccoons because, as everyone knows, they will become permanent residents on your deck or, worse, will move right into the house if you leave a door open long enough for them to sneak in.

But they are ever hopeful and cruise our deck regularly in search of scraps of food — or bird seed, apparently.

Our deck has become a popular spot for chickadees, too. They are incredibly cute and very friendly. And when the bird feeder is empty, they are not shy about informing us. They flutter around the windows, land on the edges and peek in. And when you go outside, they flit about our heads and sit on chairs and tables beside us, chirping at us.

We get the message.

They are very particular, too. They only eat the black seeds in shells. So, the rest of the bird seed mix ends up on the deck.

No problem, though. If Rocky raccoon doesn’t get to it first, Skippy the squirrel and a chipmunk we call Vacuum Cleaner will make it disappear soon enough.

We are visited by Blue Jays, too, more so in winter than summer. We buy peanuts in shells for them, though they eat the bird seed as well. No nicknames for them yet, but we marvel at how large some of them are. They’re not starving.

Occasionally, a partridge finds its way onto the deck. But so far, no bears — and we’d prefer it stays that way.

Of course, there are plenty of other animals in our neck of the forest. I’ve seen hares, fox, deer, moose, bears, a lynx, blue herons, turkey vultures and more. But not on my deck, which is about 10 feet off the ground and is only accessible from inside the house — there are no exterior stairs — or by climbing trees beside it or the posts holding it up.

There is a fine line between “cute” and “pests,” and we have to draw the line because our deck visitors won’t, especially the four-legged ones.

So far, so good.

How about you? Do you have any cute wildlife visiting you?

— Jillian