WASH ME
My car proudly wears the “I brake for squirrels” bumper sticker I designed and sell through my shop, so that tailgaters will always know I will be stopping for anything that runs out in front of me and make them late for whatever in the hell it is they’re in such a hurry to get to. Driving habits that annoy me may be a future topic for me to cover when I have nothing else to post about, but I have another reason for whipping out a new post this morning….
I was driving to work last night, and not even half a mile from my house I encountered something running across the street, coming from the opposite end of the four lane road I was on. It was about the size of a smallish-medium dog, but the silhouette looked more like a cat. I hit the brakes, not knowing what the heck it was until it got right in front of my headlights just inches away from my front bumper!
Oh my….
It would have been certain death for Mr. Raccoon had I not caught him out of the corner of my eye and hit the brakes (Not to mention it wouldn’t have done the underside of my poor old car any good). Funny thing is… once I identified it as a raccoon, I quickly forgot about the near miss and began to get giddily excited over my very first live raccoon sighting!!! I didn’t even think we had the critters in my neighborhood!
You weren’t hungry, were you Ody?
Of the nocturnal trio of raccoons, skunks, and possums, I have now seen an unsquished, live version of each exactly once in my life. And it was just a couple weeks ago I saw my lone possum… I caught him on the security monitor above our receiving door, and took a peek out the door’s window to confirm what it was. According to one of our maintenance guys, that possum always hangs around the back of the store looking for soda cans to get a swig out of.
At least he doesn’t have an alcohol problem.
As for the skunk… that came a year ago also at work. On the lawn and garden patio, just prowling around looking for something good to eat. My boss was out there first and pointed him out to me. We watched him/her from a safe distance….
Back off!!!
Maybe I should start making walks at night to capture cute critters other than squirrels on film….
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
first of all, I love your bumper sticker !!!!! I should have one on my car because I too brake for those scatterbrained little guys while they figure out which way to go. Like you I have in my life seen one Raccon, one skunk and one possum alive. My cousins day actually caught a raccoon a long time ago and put it in a a cage. I realized from then on that they are not very friendly. Many years ago, sad to say, my husband at the time actually hit a possum on the road and saw some things flying off of it as it happened. He got out and found that what went flying were the babies. One of them was still alive. He brought it home and took care of it until we found a woman who owned a wildlife habitat. AS for the skunk, when I first moved here to Kentucky, I smoked at the time and was living with my parents. Behind their house was all wooded. I sat on the back porch with my eyes closed meditating and smoking away on my cig when I opened my eyes and saw a skunk standing right there in front of me about two feet away lol. They are a lot bigger than I ever thoguht before!
Thank you! I was really surprised with how big the raccoon was… it definitely would have torn some stuff up had I hit it. That possum story is almost surreal!
I haven’t seen of those critters except for a squirrel. My brother and I actually fed a squirrel back in Canyon. A squirrel would keep coming through our yard looking for food so we started throwing pecans out there for it. After a couple of weeks, my grandfather made us a little box to put on top of our fence and we would fill it once a week for the squirrel.
I,m very lucky. I live in a rural area where I see wildlife all the time. In fact I have a pet possum, I’ve had her since last summer, she rode home on the stomach of one of my cats she was about 3 inches long when I got her she is now about 2 feet long and weighs 12 pounds. She is litter box trained, she been spayed and has the run of the house, I have a dog door that goes outside into our fenced back yard so she goes out any time she wants. I have 8 cats and 2 dogs and they all get along great. I get to play show and tell when people come over a lot of them have never gotten close to a possum and don’t know that much about them, but when they leave they have gotten to hold and play with one they can’t get over how soft there fur is. Her name is p.d. weez and she’s like all of my animals there all my kids.
That is cool! Everyone should have a housepossum! Thanks for stopping by and sharing.
I grew up in a rural area. Mama skunks are LAZY! They’d drop their babies off in the barn for the cats to raise. One day you’d go out and here would come a mama cat with her kittens in tow…only some of them would be black with a white stripe running down their back!
LOL! Almost sounds like the beginnings of a Pepe LePew cartoon!
You definetly have the Pew part right! We always prayed the dogs wouldn’t spooky the Pew out of the little buggers…lol!
Thanks for checking out RR! I find your blog a delightful place to hang around and go out on a limb. It’s good that squirrels have an honored place in our lives. I’ve got ’em all around here– reds, grays, flying squirrels. But they can drive you crazy when they get inside the house!
I’ve been lucky so far and all of my squirrels have remained outdoors. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
I live in inner city Melbourne Australia near a creek and we often see the sweetest little possums.
I rather like the idea of a house possum but I don’t think they would be in on it.