Tonight has seen the most excitement around here for a long time. I was drifting off to sleep when I heard some strange noises in the back yard. Grabbing the trusty sword that lives above my bed (yes, it has fallen and hit me in the head in the past — luckily it’s in a scabbard) I sallied forth to defend my castle:
Unwisely, I had put some bagged garbage by the usual can, which even tripple-bagged had attracted a racoon. This shouldn’t have been surprising, since there’s lots of wildlife around here (though the relentless pace of development will surely soon drive it all away): rabbits, the occasional coyote. He ran off, and I went to get another garbage bag to collect the spillage. I left the door open, and when I turned around there he was, right in the doorway, looking around inquisitively. He ran off again, and that’s when I got the bright idea of lying in wait for him with a camera.
Instead of his previous approach, straight across the lawn, he chose a more lateral route, so that I, lying in the doorway with my camera, didn’t even see him. I heard him stealthily ripping at the garbage bags again, and slowly slid my head out the door:
He was a cheeky little beast (I’m calling him he, and since no one reads this site nobody will mail me to tell me he was a she :-) He posed for several flash candids:
But eventually he got tired of being interrupted, and wandered off. I tried to lure him back by attempting to imitate some of the vocalizations I observed when a family of racoons explored our lunchtime spot up at SFU once several years ago, but he didn’t come back.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.