Raccoons

It’s kind of creepy how raccoons have appeared in my life this week. I learned that according to Seneca legend, the raccoon got his mask by stealing food from the village lodge while sniffing around the doused campfire. He burned his nose on a hot coal and now wears an ash mask forever. Then in a random conversation, I was told that zoologists say that raccoons do not wash their food and they don’t eat cats.

Yesterday Diane left me a raccoon warning. She is the cat lady in our neighborhood and has been adopted by a robust and daring raccoon who she caught watching her watch TV one evening. Her cats’ food tempted him to figure out the cat door and every morning she wakes to find her cats’ water dish filled with mud—from washing his food. And perhaps it’s coincidence, but a lost cat poster now hangs on a telephone pole on our street. We are keeping our kitten indoors this week.
And hopefully it’s a random coincidence, but today I saw a black-masked, ringtailed road kill.