This morning as I was leaving for work I put the cats out, like always. When I go, I stand at the garage door and then click it to open so that I can catch and herd any cats trying to streak into the garage.
Yes, this is a common problem at my house, cats leaping into the garage, peeing whereever the last cat peed, and then trying to escape.
So I stand at the door and lo, a black streak flyeth beneath yon door and hideth itself beneath my favorite Chevelle.
"Hey HEY HEY! Get OUT!" I yelled at my little black female feline. And she wasn't having any of it. No way was she leaving.
This was an odd thing right from the start because if either of my cats is going to try to make a break for the garage it is almost always The Boy (hence the name Booger Bear.) Finally I managed to get the Little Girl out of the garage and the door closed behind us both. As I walked to my truck I watched her slowly walking across the front yard, very afraid for some reason. Then I saw what she was looking at.
"Damn, that's a BIG cat" I thought, stupidly.
"Wait, that's not a cat."
No, it was no cat. Behind me I heard a dog. I looked and saw a stupid little yappy dog tied up to the back of my neighbor's truck in their driveway. He was sniffing the air and seemed disturbed by whatever he was smelling. I looked back at the "big cat."
Waltzing down the street in front of my house, as if he hadn't a care in the world, was the world's biggest raccoon.
As this realization was dawning on me it was also dawning on my Little Girl that the raccoon was moving in her direction. She turned back around and started to sprint for the garage. This time I opened the door to let her in, which she did fast enough to leave fur on the bottom lip of the door. I took a quick photo of the raccoon with my keychain camera and then went inside to get The Boy.
The Boy was on the back porch. He has a weak sense of smell. He was sitting there with his nose in the air trying to figure out what that odd scent was. As I already knew what it was I wasn't going to bother waiting for him to figure it out and ask to come in RIGHT NOW. I ran to the door and opened it up. "Get in here. Hurry up."
He slowly wandered in, just like always, as if he hadn't a care in the world. I locked the door behind him and told the cats, as if they could understand a word I was saying, "You're both staying in today."
Then I ran for my Sony miniDV camera.
Yes, I was late for work and yet my first thought after getting the cats safely inside was to try to get a decent photo of the raccoon. I may not be Laura or Leesa, but someday I hope to be as good (and have camera equipment as good, too.) I went back out into the driveway and started shooting photos. Aaah, this is much better. Now I can zoom.
The raccoon was fascinated with my neighbor's pickup truck, which he had left jacked up in front of his house after it became too dark for him to finish working on last night. But at some point the raccoon became aware of me. He stood up on his back legs and looked hard at me. And then, like Michael Jackson, he covered his face and ran for the fence.
Well, I say ran, but raccoons rarely run all that hard. I mean, I've seen a raccoon really sprint and they can move out when they want to, but they don't usually want to very badly. So anyway, he ran to the fence, walked along looking for an easy way through, and when he couldn't find an easy way under he climbed it and began to walk along the top, with one leg higher than the other just like the cats do. I watched him move along towards my neighbors' backyard until I couldn't see him anymore. And then I put my camera back in the house and went to work.
I suppose he might be the same raccoon I ran into last year, but that was late at night, when you expect to see raccoons out and about. This was 7:30 in the morning and I was definitely not expecting to see a raccoon working on my neighbor's truck. That caught me by surprise.
As for why I was in such a hurry to put the cats inside, wild animals do not generally waltz around in broad daylight in people's neighborhoods unless something is wrong with them. Also, anyone who ever made the mistake of feeding their cats outside and then feeding the raccoons who showed up as well should be able to tell you stories of finding their little kitties torn up and dead after the raccoons decided that they didn't like sharing food or territory with domesticated house cats. Raccoons have opposable thumbs and can grab onto your cat with a death grip that the cats can't get free of. And being twice your cat's size a raccoon can pretty easily kick its' cute little furry ass until it is dead. And they will.
So the cats are in the house and I hope to God the Little Girl didn't pee in the floor.
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