armlessbear.com

Tonight we were lounging on the porch when we noticed we had some visitors over by the sandbox. A mama raccoon and 5(!) babies had waddled up onto our patio. They were remarkably unconcerned by the people indoors yelling at them. Two of the babies crawled on top of the sandbox cover and the rest just explored the patio and looked for water in the downspout. Then, as quickly as they’d come, they were gone again.

We retrieved Clio from outside before she decided to defend her territory against a (likely) territorial mama raccoon and become raccoon food. Then I took out the maglight flashlight to patrol the neighborhood in search of their home. My neighbors probably think I’m insane. I found no raccoon den, but I did observe a lot of late-night crazy cat behavior.

I don’t know where they came from. I suspect they may live under someone’s porch since a lot of the porches here have openings to get underneath. I suspect they’ve been in my compost bin a few times over the last several months, but I don’t think there’s much food for them to find now.

I sort of hope they come back tomorrow so I can get a picture of the happy little family. They are cute, even they’re a huge nuisance.