Derek the Raccoon

We have a pesky raccoon that lives up in a high tree in our backyard. Claire has named him Derek. (Can you tell that we watch "Dancing With The Stars"? If we find out it's a girl, we'll switch it to Dereka.) Raccoons have got to be some of the cutest creatures, but also such a nuisance! This one comes into the garage through the cat door and will rip open any bag of trash we have on the floor, so Larry hangs the trash on a nail up near the ceiling. Not the easiest when you're trying to get the trash out and not be late to work. I always feel like I need to keep a little cat food out on the front porch so my babycats don't get hungry, but Derek will come and empty the bowls, and then wash his hands in the cat water (or whatever he does -- he leaves the water all muddy).

Anyway, as you can see from these pictures, his den is not situated the greatest for keeping dry in the rain, so any time we have a big downpour, once it clears up Derek will come out to shake and try to dry off. I took these the other day after it rained. He looked at us as we peered at him through the binoculars from the deck, and then he decided that maybe we were a little too scary, so he went back in his den.