Hello Mr. Raccoon!
24 September 2004 | filed under GeneralNow that it gets dark so early, this town is freakin scary! There are no lamps on our street, and for the most part people seem to disappear indoors once the sun goes down. The good thing is there’s terrific opportunity for stargazing right from our driveway.
The bad news is, I ventured out to Gimme! coffee down the block, and as I’m walking down our steps I hear some rustling in the bush (directly beside the steps). I figure… squirrel maybe, whatever. As I reach the bottom, said rustling becomes hefty thumping, and as I turn to identify, I’m pretty sure I saw a raccoon. But it was so damn dark that I could really only determine the general size of the beast, and saw some white fur around where I thought the head should be. And it was thumping at me as if to say “get the hell out of here NOW.” So I hustled down the driveway fearing it might be a SKUNK even, and I wasn’t going to risk hanging out for the spray! I’ll be checking for signs come daylight, for those little tell-tale handprints. Or dumped garbage bins anyway. ACK.
All signs are affirmative: It appears the beast was indeed a raccoon. :O(
comment by Tiffany on 25 September 2004 at 9:02 am
We used to have two raccoons come down onto our fire escape to beg for food! They can be so mean (not to mention stinky!)… Do you have opossums up there? Or are you too far north for that joy?
comment by maggie on 27 September 2004 at 9:54 am
Yikes! Were you feeding the raccoons? Slipping a little something now and then? I bet somebody nearby was, they obviously learned the begging could get food.
I don’t know about opossums in these parts… but I imagine there could be. Have you seen those guys too? There are so many critters in town, I don’t know which is which! The array of spiders is especially impressive.
comment by Tiffany on 27 September 2004 at 7:04 pm
i can’t believe you didn’t have to deal with raccoons when you lived on 11th and pine. i’ve seen them a couple times, and noticed the havoc they can wreak on garbage in the neighbourhood. although i’ve heard the coyotes do a good job of keeping them away…
comment by `jen on 28 September 2004 at 10:14 am
Not me! But I did catch Spike with some potato peels and an apple core or two! It was when we were living near the university, and I think between the drunk students and the local restaurants, they were well-fed raccoons. Needless to say, the cats were not amused.
Opossums are a treat. Think Rodents Of Unusual Size, minus the unusual size and slightly less fierce. There were a lot of them near our house in Indiana.
comment by maggie on 28 September 2004 at 9:01 pm