Home » Plants & Animals » Wildlife News » My Newest Visitor

My Newest Visitor

© Vickie Ferguson

It's happened again! My own yard has become a haven for a very large furry creature, with a huge fuzzy tail and wearing its trademark black mask.

How do I get so lucky? I live in the city in a neighborhood of trees but really this is getting a little out of hand. Besides the resident squirrels and possums, I can now add raccoons, snakes and some very big frogs with an attitude.

It's bad enough I found a long black snake lying in my driveway the other day when I parked my car. As soon as I got out, this guy zips across the flower garden, "stands" up about a foot in the air, takes a peek at the foliage and flowers and checks out the lizards running around the rocks, then peers back at me like he's saying, "hey you in the black car, yeah you, this is my parking spot, so move it!"

He didn't have to worry about me bothering him and his lizard hunt. Snakes are not my friends. I'm very intimidated by them. Not so my neighbor's cat, Butterscotch, who was on his own hunt, pouncing in and out of the flowers intrigued by the sleek visitor. I'm sure this friendly "welcome to the yard, let's play" approach by the cat was lost on the snake.

This was on Monday and of course I'm now looking all over the place for this guy. I had seen him a few day's earlier zipping across my front yard on his way to somewhere, then again in the flowerbed sunning him self and then on Monday, we had our intense "visual" confrontation.

I digress.

So Tuesday rolls around and it's around 11:00 p.m. and I hear a noise outside. I figure it's the new set of kittens looking for another late night snack so I open the door and proceed to step outside on the porch, carton of milk in hand, and peering around the corner of my house is the "masked" one looking me straight in the eye. Well, I froze right there in my shoes. This isn't the first encounter I've had with raccoons and I know from past experience just how quickly these guys can get from point A to point B.

He/she is absolutely gorgeous. A full-grown adult, approximately one foot in height with the most beautiful face and inquisitive expression.

As I stared in wonder, he blinked and started to move towards me. The porch is only about 8 feet from where he was standing. He wasn't afraid of me, that was obvious, and he knew food was on the porch. The kittens were just sitting on the steps like little statues, not moving a whisker, and very aware that something very large was about to finish off their meal. Even Butterscotch knew to not "pounce" on this creature. We were all mesmerized, except the raccoon!