Yesterday, as we were heading into town down one of our favorite shortcuts, I saw a couple of kitties begin to skitter away from the dirt road. Then I realized that they weren't just skittering away, one had jumped up to climb a tree.

I slowed my car and inched forward to get a better look at the 'wild' kitties. While scanning the tree for it, I saw a flash of tail. A fluffy tail. A fluffy tail...with rings.

These skittering animals weren't cats. They were raccoons. I thought they were young ones, Mom thought they were adults. In any case, they were adorable. I never found the second one, but the first had found a cross-branch about ten feet up and peered around the trunk of the tree at us.

He watched us with a scared and curious eye. I wish I knew what was going on in his head. Did the cute little thing know that I thought he was cute? That I wanted to just reach out and cuddle him, scratch him behind his ears and to give him a warm place to sleep?

I guess not, he didn't come down to accept my offer. Apparently, I am not Laura Ingalls.