Am I alone in this

I like raccoons. They’re cute, perky and smart. But like mischievous children, they can get under your skin. They tip over garbage cans that “go bump in the night.” They invade people’s attics; and when confronted, they may get downright mean and nasty, or so I’ve heard.

But sometimes they don’t. My husband saw a sleepy raccoon crawl down from a tree one morning to return to his own pad. I confronted the coon on our front walkway. I don’t know who was more surprised, him or me. We both held our ground and stared for a good minute or two. It was my first up close and personal look at a live raccoon. For the coon it was too close for comfort. He took off like a scared rabbit; so much for the “mean and nasty” profiling.

Another “coon encounter” occurred early one morning on our routine 3.5 mile walk. A few raccoons were taking a last drink at the water’s edge before going home to begin their daytime slumber. It was a remarkable sight and inspired my painting: “Raccoons at Sunrise.”