For the past couple of months, we've lived further away from Dallas proper than before (as you may know). This change has had some unexpected consequences. One of those consequences has been an increase in exposure to Texas wildlife. There are quite a few old trees, woody areas, and fields nearby. There's also a golf course, but that's neither here nor there. Renn has enjoyed squirrel chasing and bird watching very much.

Each morning, I walk Renn sometime between 5:30 and 6:00am. It is still dark at this time, and all the nocturnal creatures are going about their business.

Last week, maybe Tuesday, we were walking and Renn tugged on the leash to sniff the trash that was set out for pick up. He grabbed something. I saw it was a cookie (gross) and gave him a stern "No! Drop it!" He reluctantly complied. I could tell he was telepathically saying "But mom, it's still good!" I kept us walking forward.

The next day, I remembered to keep him on a short leash as we passed the same house with the same trash sitting out for pick up (pick up is on Wednesdays, so I'm not sure why they had it sitting out on Tuesday anyway). He started to pull towards the trash, and I thought surely an animal has already picked up whatever cookie mess what there yesterday. I told him no and then finally saw what he was pulling toward.

It was a raccoon! Not just any little 'ol cute raccoon. This raccoon was 1.25 times the size of Renn! And so close to him, I became concerned that the raccoon was going to get aggressive and try something. I've never seen a raccoon that big; clearly it's well fed.

I kept walking at the same pace forward and kept Renn close to me. The raccoon, disturbed from his 5:30am meal, starting circling behind us and off he went into the wooded area across the street. Crisis averted.

I'll add raccoon to the growing list of animals that Renn has met not including other dogs. So far, this list includes armadillo, gecko, bird, cat, raccoon, squirrel, chipmunk, frog, turtle and bunny.

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