The day after the bandidos visited and were treed by our dogs, I thought calm was restored in the neighbourhood, but it was not to be. Emma, the self-appointed yard supervisor, gave a few barks and stopped. I looked out the window and saw nothing. No one that needed barking at was passing by the house. I went back to my work. She barked again. I looked again. She doesn’t bark just for the fun of barking. She knows that’s not allowed. After the fourth time, I went outside to see what was up.

She caught my attention and then ran to the side of the yard and sat by the fence, looking up, as if she had something to show me. (Reminded me of Lassie trying to tell her owners that Timmy fell down the well.)

Ruby, her assistant supervisor, also sat by the fence and looked up. I couldn’t see anything, and they turned to me with a desperate pleading look before pointing their noses back up into the forest above us. So I did a CSI thing. I followed the path of their line of sight and it led me straight to a huge fir tree in the neighbours’ yard. At first I saw nothing, but then a furry creature moved.

They’re ba-a-ack! But only one this time.

This was not one of the two who were up a tree the day before. If you go back to compare this one to the raccoons on the “Bandidos” post, you’ll see that one of the original bandidos had a tattered right ear and a gash on the left side of his lip.His buddy had a milky right eye.  The lone raccoon pictured here has none of those identifying marks. He has a piece missing out of his left ear, and a gash on the right side of his lip. So there are at least three of the critters in the area just now.

It seems that they’re coming out of the woodwork. I’m glad we don’t have chickens.