Respect the raccoon. These clever, camouflaged bandits are able to adapt to almost any environment. Story Time, one of her favorite programs to present, led her to try her hand at writing about wild animals. A lover of poetry, she wrote about several different animals, all in verse. Her first, "Raccoons Don't Use Spoons" was prompted by the comical and sometimes bizarre camper encounters with raccoons: "They opened our ice chest and ate our steaks!" "They unzipped our tent to get to our food" "I'd swear one of them was teaching the others what to do!" Her poem about raccoons first teaches about the natural history of the animal then moves into its abilities and then guidance about co-existing with wild animals. After reading her poem to visitors, it was decided that it would make a great book. She plans to follow this work with books about opossums, river otters, owls, prairie dogs, and tarantulas