Rabies (No. Not Mine.)

Once upon a time, Moms came home from work. When Moms pulled into the driveway, I was waking up from my afternoon nap. Usually, when Moms comes home, she gets out of the car, comes inside, and feeds me. This time, she didn't. Instead, Moms sat in the car, screaming on the phone to Dads, "WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU ALMOST HOME!?! HURRY UP!" Dads said he was almost home; in fact, he was walking from the train station to his car and would be there any minute. Dads then said, "Why?"

I could hear Moms, still locked in the car, scream, "THERE IS A RACCOON ON THE PORCH. A RACCOON!!!"

You might be saying to yourself, "A harmless, cute, adorable, squishy raccoon? What is Moms freaking out about?" Well, apparently, if a raccoon is seen during daylight, it likely has rabies. The raccoon was also blocking Moms' ability to get in to the house.

Dads got all worried. I could hear Dads screaming, "STAY RIGHT THERE! DO NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR! I WILL BE HOME PRONTO!"

As it so happens, Moms had her digital camera with her, which takes crappy video. So she whipped it out of her purse and taped the raccoon (named Bandit) lest anyone not believe her.

There are three movies. The first one is here. When she got home, the raccoon was on the porch. By the time she got the camera out, Bandit had wandered over to the woodpeckers' suet brick. Even though he could be wicked sick, we all think he's wicked cute. I think it's the chubb that I'm attracted to.

As Moms sat in the car waiting for Dads, Bandit wandered back up onto the porch. Look at how he humps the porch to climb up to the corn cob! At this point, I'd wandered into the romper room....see if you can find me in the video. I'm the extremely bewildered one behind the safety glass.

Bandit chowed for a while...and then Dads pulled into the driveway and Bandit ran as far away as possible.

Dads never did see the raccoon. Moms is wicked glad that she took this video so we could prove to Dads that Bandit exists. He hasn't been back, though last night, when Moms went to the bathroom, the motion sensor lights were on. She didn't see a critter out there, but we both suspect that it was Bandit...or the deer that have been visiting and munching Moms' tulips....but that's a story for another time.

Your pal, JD.