Raccoons? I thought it was about Ringtails. Raccoon makes much more sense :3

They're both procyonids though, IIRC, so maybe they have similar habits.

a quick check in Wikispecies later ...yup; Procyoninae Bassariscus, species antiquus, astutus, minimus and sumichrasti, aka Cacomistle.

Hehe, love the line about the RSPCA. :D

It was catty, but I didn't want PETA on my rudder-tail and it wouldn't have scanned anyway. Besides, they are cute.

I'm sure glimpsing it at night from half a block away didn't help, but I'd swear that the one raccoon I've seen IRL looked big enough to mug me. I can well imagine the bruiser croaking this jolly tune on the way to overturn some garbage cans.

Ah, they live well in the city. Lots of good food... well, lots of food... would help them grow big and strong! (just what we need)

I had one in my shower once. It fell through the ceiling into the john and retreated to the only place that seemed safe. I had quite a shock the next time I needed to go... Damfino what it was doing in the attic; pretending it was ceiling cat? Animal control came next day and hauled it away somewhere, it looked relieved to be going actually.

I knew someone who went on vacation for 2 weeks and came back to find 3 Raccoons lounging on her couch. Her place was trashed! They got in through the dog door and managed to lock themselves in.

Lounging on her couch; somehow, that just figures.

I'm *finally* getting around to reading all of your stories, BTW.

Yay for us raccoons! Our thumbs aren't truly opposable, but they're flexible enough that it's close! Like humans, half of the hand is the palm, half is fingers.

I'm convinced that if monkeys hadn't beaten them to it, raccoons would have achieved the state humans did.

*nods* They have the curiosity, ability to learn, hands to manipulate their environment, and ability to walk on their hind legs (for a little while anyways, being plantigrade). I wouldn't say "if monkeys hadn't beaten them to it" though -- raccoons (north america) and monkeys (africa) evolved in different areas, so human development wouldn't have stopped raccoon evolution. Rather, raccoons just haven't got there quite yet.

True! Just give them another million years or so, (or an uplift project), and we might have company on this world.