Wild Side

This morning we saw an enormous raccoon saunter across two downed logs in our back woods, scamper through the brush, straight towards our fence, and then quick turned towards our neighbors back fence. Seeing this one in broad daylight reminded me of several things.

Although I'm no wild animal expert, seeing a raccoon during light hours rings a bell that it means the animal is either sick or caring for young. Hunkering down in the winter and having babies in the springtime puts the answer to what my cute pup has been barking at all-winter-long.

It also reminds me of the time when my daughter started screaming about something in the front yard. She was hysterical with fear and could barely get a complete sentence out, but something about a policeman. I sprang to the front window and saw a police car with hazard lights flashing, and two policemen running along side. Freaked out that an escaped suspect was running loose, I quickly told the kids to lock the back door.

But no sooner than giving that command I saw something black and white saunter across the front of our yard. It was a cow. A cow had the policemen on it's wild chase. It had escaped from the only true farm with in the city limits of our smallish town and these men had been chasing it for over an hour.

It also reminded me of the family of bunnies that found a beautiful Rhododendron to nest under the day of 4th of July. Hosting the neighborhood block party on our driveway with the Rhodie right next to the BBQ, made all of us a bit nervous in this poor choice of a dwelling. But they stayed out of sight until the festivities were over; we saw one adult escape shortly before midnight while we were sweeping up.

Ahhh, and the time when my friend witnessed a grazing buffalo on the hillside grass entrance to our neighborhood; and we are far from buffalo country. Although rumors started to fly about our friend, it was finally confirmed in our local Reporter.

Where had we moved? Perhaps to a typical rural city who begins to push out it's wild side.