Exotic Vermin - Thieves in the Night

I'm rapt. I saw my first live raccoon last night!

I know, North Americans are now facepalming at the thought of me bounding around at this annoying and commonplace event. They're little bastards that are everywhere and get into your garbage, but I suspect you don't know quite how awesome they are to someone who hasn't seen them before. All I got to see where I lived were birds. Birds birds sparrows blackbirds starlings Indian mynahs birds crows magpies birds wattle birds galahs cockatoos oh my gods shut up birds. When we went driving, as we were on the outskirts of the city the only wild mammalian creatures we'd see would be rabbits. Damned rabbits should never have come to my country - but that's a rant for another time.

The Husband was on a night shift last night, and as such was leaving for work at ARGH o'clock. He puttered off out the doorway and I moseyed back up here to watch more random stuff on YouTube. Well, it fills in time in the middle of the night. Don't judge me!

Yet before I'd even plonked myself back down on this couch, I heard the front door open again.

"That was fast." I said, wondering what he'd forgotten.

"There's a bunch of raccoons out here!" came the breathless reply.

I don't think my little town was quite prepared for the visual I presented in my short pyjamas and lily white legs. Thankfully the only things moving around at that time of night were the family of raccoons peering beadily at me from across our mews.

One one was out in full view, little bandit mask barely visible in the gloom as he studied me. He was scared, but I was fascinated. These things look a lot like Tasmanian Devils in the way they're shaped. They have a funny humped back and a long bushy tail, and they're so determined as they sniff about looking for rubbish.

Even The Husband was fascinated by them. Perhaps it's been too long since he'd seen evidence of them, and had never dealt with them as an adult property owner before he moved to Australia, but he was really pleased, saying, "I've never seen them this close before."

The one watching me sauntered away. You'd never have guessed he was scared save that he was trying to saunter as fast as he could. It was almost like, "Yeah, ya caught me, copper, but ya can't prove nuthin!"

Funny little buggers. Thank goodness we keep our rubbish in the basement, because those masks they wear aren't just for show. I think some human once made the correlation between how they looked and what they did, decided to become a thief and put on a mask. Coz that's what they are.

I hope I see them again. It's fascinating to see a whole world of animals that live around the humans without really interacting with us. We don't really have that in the cities in Australia. Our native wildlife is too fragile to live amongst our feral pets, and the thought of more introduced species messing things up is quite frankly unbearable.

I have no pictures of my encounter as my iPhone camera has no flash. You'll have to make do with David Attenborough.

Life of Mammals - ©BBC.

One day I may relate the story of my father-in-law and his encounter with what he thought was a raccoon in his garbage, but was in fact a whole lot larger.

I wonder when I'll see my first bear?