[wo]man vs. wild

me and the raccoons have had a good thing going on. and by "a good thing" i mean that i've been generally unaware of their existence. this was true until a few weeks ago, when they suddenly and egregiously violated their half of the deal. in FULL daylight nonetheless.



i left the apartment around 8pm to see that face staring up at me. it was all i could do to keep my composure and run back to grab my camera. when i came back somehow it had multiplied.



cripes. at this point i was half excited (after all, how often do i see so much nature so up close?) and half freaked-out. i mean, it is BROAD(ish) daylight! the only time i've seen a raccoon in the broad daylight was the time a rabid one was wandering around our neighborhood when i was in third grade. my mom told us to stay inside while animal control came and "took him away". (i'm assuming to a nice farm with a kind raccoon-loving family, right mom?) anyway, as i'm forumlating my plan of escape if, in fact, i'm dealing with some kind of raccoon army, they start climbing back UP THE STAIRS!



after taking that picture i RAN back into my apartment and slammed the door. now i had a real predicament on my hands. these raccoons were blocking my one and only exit. (those of you who know me well might know about how i occasionally try to plan my escape from unlikely life-threatening situations. NONE of my planning ever involved a possibly rabid family of raccoons holding me hostage in a one room apartment.) after a couple minutes i summoned up my courage, cracked the door open, and started crazily stomping and yelling my way to the stairs.



(note how they're running away in obvious defeat. holly-1, rodents-0)

needless to say, i was pretty darn terrified when i returned to my apartment later that night. i'm pretty sure i heard some scratching and growling from the tree they had escaped into.

this is unrelated to the overall story, but in the raccoons' hurried scurrying the smallest one wasn't able to get over the concrete wall they climbed.



aw, look at that little buddy.

consider yourselves warned, trinity dwellers. the campus raccoons mean business.