Mischieveous Visitor

Monday mid-day I was finally getting to the watering I should have started earlier when I discovered some things around the yard out of place. First it was the white wooden angel which stands near the double doors to the deck. It was lying on its side. I knew it had been upright the night before. Further down the deck I found the side counter to the grill on the deck. I replaced that wondering what had been up on the grill that was strong enough to make the counter fall off.

As I got to my perennial bed I found the ceramic pineapple that usually sits in the creeping thyme outside the bed. Now I was really curious as to what had visited me overnight. Moving to the edge of the glen to water I discovered the small watering can that a metal angel usually holds in the grass. This angel is also on my deck. When I returned the watering can to the angel's arms I looked again at the grill and found that one of the burner knobs was gone. It lay behind me on the deck. When I replaced it, I saw all the footprints that gave away my visitor's identity: raccoon.

Wednesday evening, I asked Sarah to feed the goldfish. Where's the food? It was on the grill where I left it on Sunday evening. No longer. That's what the raccoon had discovered and taken. When Dan came home he went looking down into the glen and found the lid, then the cylindrical container chewed open on the side with the contents gone.

I have to get more goldfish food, but now that the raccoon knows it likes this food I can't keep it anywhere outside including the screen porch where it has been kept for three summers. The only reason the food was outside of the porch was because I had a neighbor feeding the fish while we were away. Funny that the raccoon waited until we got home to steal the fish food.