My 3:00 AM Visitors

I do not try to make a habit of being awake at 3AM. Nor do I usually have an urge to try my hand at story telling at this hour. However, I have yet been to sleep, and was very close to actually getting there when I realized that one of my motion lights had gone off. Of course, whenever this happens, I check it out. I live by myself in the woods after all, and one can't be too careful. Usually I grab my knife, which I keep at hand by my bed, although this time I left it.

I got up, and went to my front door, where the light had gone off (as opposed to this picture of the light at the other end). At first I didn't see anything at all, so I hit the switch off and on, wondering if it was acting up again as it occasionally does. Then I noticed a furry little face peeking up onto the ramp leading to my door. Cute, gray little thing, with tiny fingers and then I saw his mask wasn't just a shadow. It was a smallish raccoon. As a sucker for animals, I automatically said "aww." This got Lincoln stirred up, and he was pacing around behind me wondering what we were doing.

While the raccoon was sniffing along the side of my ramp, I noticed there was a second one clinging to the tree right next to the ramp. Before I could do so much as react, I realized, there was a third one coming out of the shadows, browsing through the leaves along the side of the trailer. Three cute little raccoons running around. The two who weren't sniffing the ramp then started chasing each other a bit, and moved off towards the windows further along the trailer, so I went out stood by my couch to watch them. During this time the first one had run up a tree over by those windows.

Lincoln, of course, followed me. All of a sudden, he sees them and starts growling a bit. This sent all three of them right up the trunks a good six or seven feet, still within easy viewing range. One was hiding behind the trunk, while the other two were on two trees, each staring in the windows, looking confused by what was going on, and wondering what these strange things were. The one closest to me was staring over at Link, while the one closest to him was staring at me. At least, until I laughed at their expressions, which made both of them look at me, and the other one came around, glanced at me and the dog and ran up the tree.

About that time, a fourth one suddenly came down from the tree that two of them were on, completely ignoring both me and the dog, who was getting antsy by this point, and very much wanted to go protect his yard and/or make new friends. It was the mother of the three youngsters (who will very soon be on their own if size is any indication). She promptly trotted off across the yard, causing the two who had been staring inside to turn tail and follow her. The other one, however, came down and clung to the tree, staring upside down at me and the dog in turn. Eventually, after long enough for the other three to have disappeared into the shadows, the youngster realized that it was being left and trotted off after its family (incidentally, they have a very interesting trot, with arched backs). It was close, but not the same path that the others took. For its sake, I hope it was following sound or scent rather than just following their path. Of course, as soon as that last one disappeared into the shadows, Lincoln started whining and ran off to the door, wanting to go look for them. It was a nice, if somewhat surreal moment to be (part of the time) sitting on the couch with my dog, watching a family of raccoons at 3 in the morning, and then have them disappear without leaving a trace that they were even there. Makes me wonder just how much of the local wildlife I completely miss. At least the deer leave marks from time to time to show they were inside the fence.

Oh, and I did try to get a photo, but I couldn't from inside, and to go outside would have scared them up the trees, so I restrained myself.  This other picture will have to suffice.