A Masked Bandit

Taigen had his suspicions. He voiced them to me quietly one night after the kids went to bed. "I think that noise I heard outside tonight while grilling might be a racoon. I've seen tracks leading to and from our deck and also leading under our deck. Let's not leave any scraps out for the cats for a while."

Racoons are cute. I love their fuzzy masks and bushy tails, but I know they can be pests when it comes to pets and garbage. We might enjoy seeing one, but we don't want them taking up residence at our house...or deck!

Well, this morning during breakfast, I glanced out my kitchen window to see our masked bandit sitting leisurely under a tree cleaning his paws. So leisurely was he, that I was able to grab the camera, snap some pictures of him, AND call the kids from the table to get a look for themselves. Once he decided he was clean enough, he got up and casually meandered into the woods. Aren't they supposed to be nocturnal? His Daylight Savings Time started a bit early, don't you think?

He was very cute, and he clearly came out from under our deck (the muddy tracks from underneath stopped at where he had been under the tree). Eeek! We haven't seen him since (whew), and it was very neat for all of us to see a (live) racoon, but we're not going to throw out a welcome mat to him any time soon.