I heard noises outside of the bathroom window. Not loud noises, but curious noises. Of course, I had to go check it out. I put on my robe and left Mickey to eat in the bathroom, grabbed a flashlight and went outside.
Walked around the side of the house and pointed the flashlight at the fence. OMG!
Four young raccoons! All climbing the same place, the corner of the fence next to the tree hating neighbors. They were walking on the barrier at the top. I heard some growling, I heard and saw in the glow of the light, a stream of urine (which the cats are really interested in this morning). I stood there, mouth open thinking “they’re so CUTE!!!!”
I ran back inside the house (have to watch doors, the cats seem to believe I’ll go back in the door I used to go out) and told Brian (poor Brian, these past couple of nights he hasn’t gotten much sleep either) “Brian! There are four raccoons on the fence!” Then I went back outside.
Wait, there’s one climbing the tree, that’s the one that’s growling. But…but…there are still four on the fence! FIVE! Five raccoons! I bet they did a number on the food dishes in the entry way.
So, I go back inside, let Mickey out of the bathroom, hang my robe up, put the flashlight back in it’s spot and went back to bed.
“There are FIVE raccoons!” I tell Brian. We lay there. He says “you can hear them”. He gets up, looks out his bathroom window. “I wonder if I should hose them.” NO! Leave them be. He comes back to bed. We lay there. I wonder where Mickey is. Brian tells me that the barrel outside that he had filled with pinecones is half empty. Mark told him the raccoons eat them. Brian wondered why they didn’t eat the ones on the ground. Then he said “listen, you can hear them eating”. And I could. Crunching down on pinecones.
I told him that I wasn’t going to let the cats out this morning until I was sure there weren’t any raccoons in the yard. One wouldn’t have me as worried, but five? Nope, not taking any chances.
I finally dozed off, but never really got back into the deep sleep that’s so important. Cause I was watching Mickey, ya know?
And Brian’s going to start pulling the food back up in the entry at night. He’s been lax since we got back from Disneyland. When I checked this morning, the paper bowls were decimated, KittyMeezer’s water bowl was filthy brown. I brought that in and washed it, put clean water in it and now everybody is happy.
I wonder where the raccoons went.
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