I got up before dawn this morning and went running at first light in Mount Tabor Park, near our house. Near a 100-foot tall Douglas Fir tree, I heard unusual scrabbling noises, so I stopped in my tracks to investigate.
I saw an adult raccoon spreadeagled on the tree at about waist height, looking over its shoulder directly at me. We regarded each other with interest there in the warm, quiet morning, just me and her, breathing in and out.
After a minute I glanced up and saw three small raccoons thirty feet up on the trunk, tails toward me, in a frozen triptych. Oh! This was a raccoon family. The scrambling noises had been their fleeing from me. I was chagrined and immediately backed away. What was fun for me — entering their environment –they experienced as being bullied and threatened.
Resuming my run on up the mountain, I reflected that I would not be seeing many raccoons, towering Douglas Fir trees, or nature in the city at all if it were not for disciplined land use. I’m blessed to live in a city and state — Portland, Oregon — that have some of the most robust land-use laws in the nation. We still have some nature in the city here.
I imagine the raccoon family is blessed, too. Maybe I’ll meet them again in a future run.
Oh how lovely to see raccoons in the city like that! Edinburgh is lucky too in that we have a lot of green space here and lots of animals, though obviously we’re in the wrong place for raccoons
Hi Alison,
I had a similar experience last night as I opened the sliding glass door from my home office on my way across my small back yard to the main house. First, I saw the wet footprints on the wood deck, then the mother raccoon, who stopped right in front of me and rose up on her hind legs. I was confused, until I saw the rest of the family scurrying, one by one behind her, across the yard. I was and still am gleeful about our encounter. How great! Mind you, this is in an area that many Portlanders consider to be on the other end of the green spectrum: Los Angeles, CA. I admit, we are on the outskirts of the city, and live on a coastal canyon, which naturally helps protect the wildlife. I am happy to be among the residents of this area who have been successfully protecting and defending the plant and animal life from rampant development for the last 20 years.