Summer this year begin in mid-May. As I write (in mid-July) we’ve had 2 months of daily high temperatures in the low 100s Fahrenheit (around 40 Celsius) and we probably have 2 more months to go. For the wildlife, an extended heatwave like this is brutal. They have no way to cool off. We put out bowls of fresh water everywhere, but what they really crave is air conditioning (or rain, or both).
This raccoon was hoping to catch a little breeze one night, up on the top of a stump outside the magic tree den. She climbed up and lay there for a while, spread out like a rug. We think she dreamed of snow.