Raccoon!

[carbonel]

When I moved into this new house, I suspected I'd see more urban wildlife than I had in my old house along a moderately busy main street. The rabbits and squirrels were no surprise, though I am seeing a lot more rabbits than I expected -- or the same ones more frequently. The occasional ducks were a pleasant surprise. They wouldn't be so pleasant if they stayed and pooped on the lawn, but I actually don't know if ducks have habits similar to geese.

But just now I saw something out of the corner of my eye that was neither a squirrel nor a rabbit -- and definitely not a duck. I got up to get a better look, and saw a black mask and a striped tail. Definitely a raccoon, though I don't remember having seen one in the wild before. It was a rather well-fed one; it waddled over my driveway, across my next-door-neighbor's backyard, and disappeared under the next-door-neighbor's house where there was a gap between the building and the ground.

I wonder if I should let him know that he's harboring wildlife.