I live in the city limits but in an older neighborhood filled with trees, so adult and baby raccoons, possum families and a variety of birds (Bluejays, Cardinals, Carolina Wrens, Brown Thrashers, Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, Mockingbirds, Mourning Doves, Eurasian Collared Doves, Crows and Owls make my yard their temporary residence sometime during the year.
I've had an encounter with an adult raccoon 3 times in the past couple of years. They have no fear, and why should they, they're huge!
I've come home at night to find one standing in my walkway about 30' from my front door with his golden eyes gleaming and holding his ground. I was able to park and get to my front door to unlock it but as I looked to my right, there stood the raccoon on my front porch about 8' away. It took him about 2 seconds to get from my pathway to the porch.
A few minutes later, I opened my front door ( I have a screened security door as well) and standing right there, nose to the screen, was the raccoon. He didn't move and neither did I. They're absolutely gorgeous and this fella was a perfect specimen.
A couple of months ago, I went out on my porch around midnight, front light on, and peering around the side of the house was what I believe was a female (probably mom to the two I just discovered). She was smaller and looking for food. I have outside cats and feed them when I get home, so the raccoons have discovered this. She was going to walk right up on the porch but I shooshed her and she took off to the backyard.
The babies that I've just discovered are no bigger than a regular sized housecat. They, too, exhibited no fear of me. More curious than anything else. They were also curious of the cat and he was of them, as well. The babies ran up and down the giant oak tree searching for food. I did put out some bread and crackers for them and a dish of cat food because they were determined to join us on the porch!
I've lived in my house for 12 years and in that time, I've had a very tiny baby possum on my back porch and possums or raccoons in my attic as well as in my yard. The squirrels are usually in residence in my attic during the winter but these were way too large to be squirrels. I've had an adult raccoon walking on my fence during the day (that was scary), a pair of beautiful owls perched in the camphor tree on their way to somewhere, bats flitting around in the night, and of course the resident lizards, prehistoric looking frogs and albino lizards.
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