THE NARRATIVE ARC
Morning With the Raccoons
Maybe they’re not the enemy
This morning I woke up at 5 AM. I went downstairs and made coffee. It was still too early to go walking so I read a little and wrote in my journal. From the couch where I was sitting, I could see a raccoon slinking across our back patio. It climbed up the stairs and over our hot tub where it made its way to a little ledge. From there, the raccoon stood on its hind legs and perched its paws on the birdbath where it proceeded to paw at the water and drink.
I watched for a while and then walked to the back door so I could rap on the window and scare it away. When I knocked on the glass, the raccoon turned around from the bird bath and stared me down. It looked at me for a long minute and then, maybe thinking that I might open the door and swing a baseball bat at it, slowly made its way up our back slope.
It was nearing 6 AM so I put my shoes on and went down to the lake for a walk, where I always start by looking for the beavers. As I looked out onto the lake, scoping out the usual areas where I see beavers commuting to their lodge, I thought to myself, “What makes me think beavers are so cute and the raccoons are not?” If I saw a beaver in my backyard I wouldn’t knock on the glass to scare it away even though raccoons are actually kind of cute too.
