Raccoons

After the kids climbed aboard the bus yesterday, the bus driver motioned for me to step forward.  "Two huge raccoons just went in your backyard.  Be careful."

I was taken aback.  Not by the raccoons but by his need to warn me about them.  Sure, raccoons can startle you, hiss and get aggressive, and, sure, it was daylight, and most raccoons shouldn't be out and about, but I don't know if they attack people.  Is suburbia so tame that we need a warning about raccoons?

Still, I was glad for the information, and curious, and so I walked the yard.   Alas, no sign of them.

Until about an hour later when I walked around the block a few times.  There in front of me in a neighbor's yard were indeed two raccoons:  a big giant mama raccoon and a much smaller child raccoon.  Cute.  I had the sensation that they were looking for a place to go, ambling along.  And then I remembered, for two days now, a neighbor has been clearing the back of his property of trees and undergrowth, felling about seven huge trees and all the stuff in between.  Was this raccoon family homeless because of the clearing?  Were they looking for a new place to live?

They left before I got a picture of them for the kids.  I hope they find a place to live.  And in the end, I'm more scared of my neighbor's maniacal felling of nature than of two raccoons.