Sara Schaefer

This is a picture of my backyard the other night.

Doesn't look like much...until you look real close.

This dude was just hanging out on our fence, like two feet away. He was fat and big, a small bear almost. He was very non-plussed. He wasn't even bothered by the neighbor's cat who was posturing and growling. Probably because that raccoon knew damn well that he could kill that cat, much in the way a grizzly can decapitate an adult man with one swipe of the claw. But he was cute, I gotta admit.

Then he proceeded to climb up a drain pipe, get on the neighbor's fire escape, play peeping tom for a bit, and then climb the ladder, donkey kong style, until he disappeared onto the roof. Some life these city raccoons have. They do whatever the fuck they want.

I guess I can't say I'm the city version of Timothy Treadwell. Chris really is. He has been studying the behavior of city raccoons, living among them, naming them, learning their customs, and becoming one of them for quite some time now. It's dangerous...but he would die for these raccoons - he would die for them!