It's no surprise that we have wildlife in this part of the world. Eugene has lots of deer, there are a couple flocks of wild turkeys that wander around in the suburban hills, and I've even seen a young mountain lion.
Monday evening, while we were sitting on the couch watching "Two and a Half Men," I saw Yang show up at the sliding glass door wanting to be let in. I did and he promptly snuggled up in the Babe's lap. Well and good. About five minutes later, I glanced at the sliding glass door and I saw two teenage raccoons peering in.
(Mind you, had this been a couple days ago, the deck would've been clean as a new plate after the lawn service had cleaned all the leaves off and so on. But the maple isn't done shedding leaves, so there's lots of nature strewn around. And just ignore the unseemly folding deck chair and garden torch fuel lying there--that's me being sloppy.)
We didn't have any food on the deck, because that will attract these guys and I'd rather not have them coming around.
The raccoons could see me through the glass as easily as I could see them and were clearly not afraid of me.
I'm sure that someone, somewhere is feeding them, intentionally or not. (Raccoons are famous for stealing dog food out of bowls left outside for the dog. They're equally famous for that "What??!?" look while they're doing it: they stare at you with those big eyes and all the while the little hands are moving carefully back and forth to the food without them once losing eye contact.)
The two raccoons wanted inside (not happening!) and were interested in BC, who was watching them through the glass. (I'd had a heart-stopping moment a couple years ago when BC was outside on the deck when two larger raccoons appeared. Fortunately, he just watched them and made no aggressive moves, else they'd have had him for lunch.) I tapped on the glass and they sniffed near where my hand was. They would occasionally stand up and lean against the glass, which left muddy little footprints.
I like raccoons at a safe distance. Apart from the high incidence of rabies, they're just downright dangerous. They can tear apart dogs four times their size by holding on to their muzzles and kicking at the dog's underbelly with their sharp back feet. And they're just nasty: a woman I knew years ago in Seattle had had a large pond of ornamental goldfish. It wasn't just enough that the raccoons wanted sushi, but they seemed to just kill the rest of the fish out of spite. Shoot, give 'em opposable thumbs and they'd be unpleasant enough to be people. (My ex always loved the idea of dressing raccoons up in badly fitting pinstripe suits and give 'em fedoras and have them stand on streetcorners making comments to passersby: "Yeah, yer ugly and yer mother dresses yuh funny!" This would be, she carefully explained, "The Invasion of the Snotty Badgers.")
The raccoons wandered away from the window eventually, but they hung around the planter boxes for a while. I stepped outside and got a few shots of them without the sliding glass door in between, but I didn't get too close. I don't trust 'em any more than they trusted me.
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1 comment:
I don't care much for raccoons either. After all, they're wearing masks!
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