One Cat's Seattle

I figured out how to turn on the bedroom light last night. I'd been playing with the pull-string for awhile, and at 3 AM I figured it out! And boy were the humans surprised.

Raccoons came to the back door. The humans tried to scare them away...
But these guys wanted in! Not even the camera flash and Nancy's scary-monster sounds were enough to drive these guys off.

My servants keep talking about how it's winter, but I've hardly seen any snow at all. It's just rain, rain, rain. Well, today they rode with friends to a place in "The Mountains" called Snoqualmie Pass, and Mark took this photo while they were there. Now that's some snow!

I finally managed to get a picture of two raccoons, right outside my window, above the head of the human bed. And I watched them slip underneath the deck of this houseboat then up onto the dock, without getting wet! There could be a whole network of runs and decks under the flooring. I had better make another search of the house, to make sure there aren't any trapdoors.

At 2 A.M., I was awakened by the sound of wild animals fighting. The snarling was so loud, I thought at first that they'd gotten into the houseboat somehow. I listened, frozen, heart racing and ears alert, ready to leap to the highest spot in the bedroom at the slightest indication of danger. It sounded like the fight was taking place under the floorboards, and it sounded positively vicious.

My man servant, also disturbed, scrambled out of bed and opened the shutters, just in time to see a huge raccoon jump first into and then out of the water. It plunged into the water from the small wooden float next to the houseboat, on which a neighbor stores two kayaks, splashed into the lake, then immediately climbed up onto the dock and lumbered as fast as it could toward the shore, dripping as it went. Mark looked down the dock and saw a teen-aged boy standing not far off; his presence must have scared the attacker off.

I couldn't sleep for hours, and neither could Mark, we were both so thrilled, so agitated. I replayed the brief experience in my head, over and over, wondering what had brought about such hostility. The conflict was so heated, and so stationary, that I wonder whether there is a raccoon nest under one of the kayaks, and what we heard was a mother fiercely defending its babies.