Ole Brother Coon is still ahead in the contest of wits we’re having in the backyard at Annie-Glenn’s Bed and Breakfast. A recent column about the masked character who feeds nightly with the damncats prompted several readers’ comments.

At least two convinced me that coons can’t resist canned corn, but the damncats will ignore it.

Not our damncats. I baited it with the opened can of corn according to the suggestion I received. The next morning when I checked, Tom damncat hisownself was scrambling frantically inside.

Of course, I know what happened. Tom wasn’t the least interested in that corn. He’s just so biggety that he couldn’t stand the trap being open without walking up in there and SLAM!, the doors sprung shut. When I opened the door the next morning to let him go, he shot out at a fast run completely free of the limp which had been plaguing him from some earlier injury. He ran so fast that he left his biggety behind. At least until the next time I saw him.

Then came a call from Rosemary who said she’d found Gracie the Katrina dog roaming on Constance Street.

We had found Gracie roaming in November, 2005, after Katrina. Thinking that her owner had abandoned her, we kept her.

Then in August, 2006, the lady who had owned her and who had abandoned her during the storm evacuation came back and reclaimed her. We didn’t argue; the lady obviously loved the dog.

So when Rosemary again encountered the dog loose and the lady didn’t answer her knock when she went to Gracie’s owner’s house to check, she took Gracie home. She said Gracie seemed glad to be back. The Laurel Street damncats were somewhat less glad.

Rosemary pinned a note to the door of Gracie’s owner’s house, asking her to call. As of this writing, she had heard nothing.

Gracie was wearing the same rabies tag we had put on her in 2005. She also had fleas which kept her scratching through the night. Rosemary purchased Frontline or some such, and Gracie, whether she goes or stays, will be somewhat flea free for awhile.

I sorta hope that Gracie will still be there next time I get back to New Orleans. My granddaughter Blair said it best: “Gracie’s a comfortable dog.”