I told Calvin to hush, but he just kept going.
I went outside and saw that he was barking in the direction of a bar-height table under the deck. The table was cluttered with sandbox toys, and Calvin appeared to be barking at them.
"What? What?!" I said, scanning the table.
"This?" I picked up a sandy plastic robot and tossed it into the sandbox. The barking continued.
"This?" I picked up a small dump truck, and tossed it in next to the robot.
Calvin's barking was frantic by this point, and I started to think maybe he was really out of his tree this time.
The barking was so snarly and persistent that I continued sorting through the toys, thinking maybe there was a mouse, or perhaps a bat among the toys. The next time I looked at Calvin, he stopped barking, deliberately looked me in the eye, then looked above my head and barked once.
I slowly looked up.
There, clinging to the rafters right over my head was a very fat raccoon. He was terrified. He had no hope of squeezing into such a small hiding space, so he was wedging his face as tightly into the corner as possible.
He was holding on, god knows how, and kept shifting his position to get a better grip, and to squish his face further into the corner.
Once Calvin realized that I saw the raccoon, all his barking stopped.
I jumped out of the drop zone and called for Sadie to bring my camera.
Winnie the Pooh: Look, look, Piglet. There's something in that tree over there.
Piglet: Is it one of the f-f-fiercer animals?
Tigger: Halloo!
Winnie the Pooh: Yes. It's a "jagular."
Piglet: W-What do "jagulars" d-do, Pooh?
Winnie the Pooh: Well, "jagulars" always call, "Halloo!" And when you look up, they drop on you.
Piglet: I'm looking *down*, P-P-Pooh.
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