Galumphing Dogs and Wary Raccoons

Esau and I went raccoon spotting the night before last, around 7:30 PM. The evening before, we had seen the usual trio. The mother and one baby were up on the wall near their den entrance, and the other baby was down on the ground, messing around with some unidentified object. It was too dark for me to see what he was up to, but after a short time, he suddenly became aware of our presence and ran up a nearby tree.

photo: Velo Steve/Flickr.com

Last night, we saw no raccoons at first, probably because several big, goofy dogs were galumphing about, off leash, near the wall. The raccoons’ good judgment in staying hidden I take, in these viral days, as an indicator of continued rabies-free health.

After the goofy galumphers and their oblivious cell-phone yakking owners went on their way, one raccoon (the mother?) emerged to hang out at the entrance and sniff the air, nose held high.

Lime Leaf Restaurant, highly recommended. Photo courtesy of Mary Sargent

We didn’t wait to see if the others would follow Big Mama, as our take-out food was getting cold over at Lime Leaf, the lovely Thai restaurant at 108th and Broadway.

Wishing the raccoons a quiet evening, we left, heading east to Broadway.

(The photo above is by Mary Sargent who has made it her mission to photograph every street in Manhattan. Check out her delightful photo blog: Manhattan Street Project. When we were looking long-distance for an apartment, I browsed her blog to get a feel for different neighborhoods.)

Explore posts in the same categories: In the City, January, raccoons, Wildlife/Natural History

Tags: Lime Leaf Restaurant, Manhattan raccoon behavior, Manhattan Street Project, nyc raccoons, raccoons in city park, raccoons rabies-free, urban raccoons

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