My Near Death Experience

Last night I was almost killed by three large raccoons-and not the cute cartoon ones you see to your left (do you remember the show, the Raccoons?).

These crazy creatures were in my backyard making quite a lot of noise. I wasn't sure what was happening outside and thought "wow, it must be really windy out there, I hope no more tree limbs fall into my yard." So, I decided to open my back door and see what was going on. When I opened the door I was staring into the face of one of these rabid creatures.

We met eyes and I sensed he wasn't about to leave his perch on my back deck. I turned on my light to find two of his brothers on the ground doing whatever it is raccoons do. My first instinct was to shut the door, then I thought about sending Rocky out there to tackle the intruders. But, there was one of him and three of them and I have heard they are quite scrappy fighters, not to mention they were each the same size as he was (add both these raccoons together in order to get a feel for the size of each of them-they were huge!).

So, what did I do? Well, I tried to get them to leave my yard by standing there and looking out the window (I know, quite a clever defense, huh?). What could I do? I couldn't go outside-the one that was two feet away could have attacked me. When they decided they were ready to leave they crawled away and climbed onto the fence and I think I saw the fence buckle under their weight.

After all this had happened, Rocky finally came upstairs (really making me doubt his guard dog abilities) and joined me in watching them leave our yard and scamper off to attack one of my neighbors. I know it sounds like they were somewhat harmless, but I think the one could have eaten through my door and attacked me! I am just lucky to be alive.