The strange thing about living in Australia is you're used to terrible, nocturnal screeching things, many of which fly. You're used to spiders as big as your hand, or ignoring one of the 10 most deadly snakes turning up while you're walking around the block. You're used to, on a hike, running into furry things as tall as you hopping around the place while carrying their young in flesh pouches.
But raccoons? That’s so weird. They're real things? For serious? That rummage through your garbage?
@vampiress right!? we are perfectly comfortable with spiders that have hairier legs than a jack russell terrier and live in your shoe, but those things have creepy little hands
@vampiress I'd see them regularly when I lived farther from the city, but I rarely spot them since I moved to and later adjacent to Chicago. I think the coyotes eat them.
@vampiress One night I walked into our living room to find our dog, and three cats (including the shy one who always hid under the bed), all lined up shoulder to shoulder, staring intently at the glass door to the deck. I looked down at them in surprise.
Then, afraid of what I would see, I looked up to the door.
A raccoon was staring back at us, its paws against the glass.