Growing up in Cloverdale I saw my share of small wildlife: snakes, frogs, skunks, oppossums, raccoons, coyote, and deer were mainstay around here. But as new houses and developments sprung up the wildlife were pushed away.
Last night I put my dogs out in the backyard for a few minutes around 11pm. I know, I was too lazy to walk them down the street. No, really, I was tired and was lying down and nearly sleeping when I forced myself up to give them one last chance at potty. I came back down a few minutes later and my Dalmatian, Tessa, was waiting at the gate. My other dog, Lacy, I could here in the back of the garden rustling around. I called her and she came over right away, but from the side, not the back. Then I heard this screeching noise from the back garden. Scree, eek, eek, eeeee. Over and over.
I've heard plenty of cat fights, lots of marauding cats wandering around Cloverdale when I was younger, but this was no cat fight. At first I thought it might be a screech owl. Not that I recall ever hearing one, but I had no idea what it could be. Neither of the dogs were at all interested either. The screeching noise and rustling in the trees and shrubs continued and I quickly moved the dogs back into the house just in case they did develop an interest.
I got back to the bedroom and told Kerry there was this weird screeching noise going on. He suggested it was a cat fight, but I said no way and opened the window so he could hear the noise. Now the screeching was coming from across the street and now Lacy was very interested and started barking. I settled her down and watched out the window as a small animal ran down the side of our yard. It was about the size of a cat, but I wasn't sure it was a cat. I thought it might be a raccoon. It jumped up on the fence in front of the window with all the agility of a cat and then turned around and looked at me with its big black shadowed eyes. Raccoon! It sat there for about 30 seconds and then jumped off the fence and ran across the street.
So I wonder if that was 2 raccoons fighting or whether they were travelling together and got separated and were screeching out to each other.
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