We Interupt This Good Night’s Sleep To Bring You Ranger Alerting Us That The Biggest, Healthiest And Most Well-Fed Raccoon In The City Has Arrived And Is On Our Front Porch This Minute At 3:38 This Morning… Just Hangin’

Ranger, being the good first-alert dog that she is brought me out of me sleep with two insistent barks, but when all remained quiet after that, I drifted back off until another got my feet onto the hardwood to find her on the club chair in the library looking out the west window, tail wagging back and forth like a windshield wiper. I stepped beside her and scanned out and around the dark street. Nothing.

Then I looked and saw the furry, hunched over form on the porch railing and an audible “Wow!” escaped me for their sat the mightiest raccoon of them all. I grabbed my camera and moved to the foyer trying to pull some kind of image of the thing in the dark and through the window glass (above’s was the best of that bunch).

When it was finally alerted to my presence I moved to the front door and it clambered slowly down the rail to the porch floor where I allowed it to move across the threshold before yanking open the door, where it then did the coolest thing. Instead of running away down the steps, it climbed back up to the top of the railing and came back across threshold to the pergola above the porch where it shimmied up and out of sight onto the roof of the house.

So of course sporting nothing more than a pair of boxers, my camera and some questionable judgment, I exited the house, climbed up on the porch bench (making sure to turn on the flash), poked my head up through the top of the pergola and found him hangin’ out casual some more on the roof where I managed to snap these other three shots (the far left one being an obvious fave and most indicative of his massive scale; all click to quadruplify):

Eventually it trudged up to the top of the roof and I have no idea where it went. I swear this big fella would have fit snuggly in a large laundry basket. What a treat to behold and to get images of, even if it did abbreviate my shut-eye time.

Our first and only other raccoon encounter is posted here.

8 Responses to “ We Interupt This Good Night’s Sleep To Bring You Ranger Alerting Us That The Biggest, Healthiest And Most Well-Fed Raccoon In The City Has Arrived And Is On Our Front Porch This Minute At 3:38 This Morning… Just Hangin’ ”

Comments:

Miles says:
March 1st, 2008 at 4:54 pm

That’s not a raccoon. It’s a bear. Jeepers.

mark says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 2:12 am

Errrr you are aware that raccoons are notoriously cranky animals… right?

Will says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 3:32 am

Oh absolutely, Mark! But there was a sense I got from this one that it was either tired or full or a bit preoccupied and not at all interested in being aggressive.

danc says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:10 am

Hmm, that big boy might be to urbanized (possibly rabic). I like raccoon’s to scurry away upon discovery (i.e. dog barks). The roof over our bedroom has a hemlock tree where they love to eat, fight, crap and use the roof as short cut to another tree.

Will says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:56 am

Danc, this guy was definitely more habituated to humans than wild ones (I guess that comes with the urban territory). I’m not sure what might lead you to think it rabid. I mean, given it’s demeanor and body mass, that isn’t something I’d considered.

danc says:
March 4th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

Cute raccoons generally don’t make pets (except in Disney movies?) and both parties keeping a distance is better. My rabid speculation is based on raccoon not moving away at first significant noise, by the dog or you. The “Big Boy” [I'm assuming again] is not wandering during the day, so it may be more inquisitive.

Will Campbell says:
March 4th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

I hear ya Danc and agree that distance is better. I’m a pretty firm believer in the “I chase you away because I love you” mindset when it comes to wildlife.

It definitely initiated a skeedaddle when I threw the bolt on the front door. It clambered down from the rail and moved across the front door but then opted to hop back up and come back over to where it could climb up to the roof. By the time I got those shots of it on the roof and it lumbered away out of sight, no more than a minute had elapsed.

[sic]