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Shortly before we moved out of our Takoma Park house, we noticed that a family of raccoons had moved into the giant willow oak out front. At night, you could see two adults and four babies climbing up the trunk of the tree. During the day, an outstretched foot, leg, or arm would sometimes be visible poking out of the knothole where they sleeped. We and our neighbors entertained ourselves by watching them poke their head out of the hole.
Last night, I was discussing with our neighbors here the neighborhood raccoon, who happens to live nearby. Just then, we see their dog chase the raccoon under the deck next door. An on-demand raccoon appearance; perhaps his ears were burning. In any case, we were a little concerned that the raccoon was out and about when it was still light out.
But odd nonetheless that we seem to move during raccoon-spotting season. Perhaps this phenomenon explains why I moved so much in San Francisco; raccoons were always out and about there.
Posted by Underblog at June 18, 2005 6:10 AM
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where was I? 8 years in SF and I never saw a coon.
Posted by: heather at June 18, 2005 10:05 AM
I was walking down Lyndale one night with a friend. I heard this scratching on a tree next to me (on Lyndale, mind you - this is a bustling street, in a bustling part of town). I looked over and there was this RACCOON staring at me from the tree. It was like four feet away!! I could have reached out and pet it. Anyway, there it was. Looking at me. Like it wanted to eat me. I grabbed my friend's arm, SQUEALED, and ran half a block away. My friend had no idea what I was squealing about and I said, "it's a RACCOON!!!" He looked back and said, "actually, it's two of them." I looked back, saw that there were indeed two of the creatures staring at us as if they wanted to eat us, SQUEALED again, grabbed his arm AGAIN, and ran away even further.
I am from rural Michigan. It's not like I have never seen an animal before. But I swear these raccoons had murder in their eyes. And what were they doing on Lyndale anyway? I'm not begrudging them a place to live, but on LYNDALE. Anyway, I spent the next week looking up web site about raccoons attacking people and animals to justify my irrational SQUEALING. My friend still laughs at me when raccoons get mentioned in conversation.
Posted by: NGS at June 18, 2005 7:53 PM