Night Visitor...

We had quite an interesting little visitor come ambling through this evening while my husband, daughter and I were out in the courtyard area(under the tree in our backyard we have a sitting area with umbrella and courtyard area and arbor area with jasmine and other flowers) anyhow we were sitting out there this evening right at dusk..close to 8 p.m.... and I see the grass rustle about 2 feet behind daughters chair..I think to myself..oh it's probably a lizard jumping off the tree onto the grasses behind her..but then my husband says.."oh my goodness..will you look at that!..it's a raccoon!" It had come right up no more than a few feet behind my daughter and decided it would just start crawling up the tree right behind her. So my daughter went in and got the camera, hubby went and got the flashlight..and we tried to take photos of it in the crook of the tree. I managed to get a few decent images, but hard to do when it is dark out that is for sure.

Anyhow..it finally came back down the tree and ambled off and climbed the fence between our house and the neighbors.

Quite interesting, and I had not been that close to one in a while. We did make sure that we quickly rounded up the ducks and put them in their pen, as this raccoon was surely big enough to be able to take out one of the ducks if it so desired to...and I definitely don't want to provide it that oppurtunity.

Anyhow..thought I'd share the photo with you all.

Yes,we did have a pet raccoon as a kid, albeit briefly..they do grow fast and can turn wild acting and destructive indoors. So we wound up donating ours to an outdoor classroom facility that would teach school children about wild animals and environments.

Anyhow..enjoy the photo..it isn't one of my best..since it was a night shot, but still an o.k. image for being in the dark.

Have a great evening.

~The Garden Goose~