Finished commission for Pepper featuring a moment in time based on a real camping trip that I took my daughter on several years ago where this actually happened.

The end of a lovely day spent in the Big Meadows of Shenendoah Park in Virginia where we'd gone to Ranger talks, hiked some trails, saw deer, and set up our tent. All day long she'd be asking me "When are we going to cook hot dogs? When are we going to make s'mores at the fire? I want some chocolate!" (She's older now and is better able to appreciate camping, but she was 5 at the time and the sugar treats were VERY important). Anyhow, after sunset we started up the campfire and made our dinner and then started cooking marshmallows and after coming back to the picnic table we began eating WHEN SUDDENLY...

...this raccoon head pops up across the table from me and directly next to my daughter. Time stretched out as my awareness of what was happening battled with the surprise and bewilderment of a waking dream-like state. It was dark and the campfire was the only light so it was a bit ghost-like but the raccoon twitched his head this way and that to see what was available, and then before you knew it he reached out to grab the bag of marshmallows, yanked them back and scampered off into the darkness.

As my brain rejoined my body I realized that my daughter probably was more distressed about the situation than I was and so I quickly checked to see how she was doing. "WOW, did you see that? Bold little critter, isn't he? I bet he does that quite a lot to just hop up on the table like that. Are you okay? Are you scared? He was just after the food and not gonna bite you. It's okay, we're alright." She looked at me a bit poleaxed and said "Dad.... dad.... he TOOK ALL THE MARSHMALLOWS! HE TOOK THEM ALL!!!" Then she broke into hysterics until I reassured her that we'd get more marshmallows the next day and it'd all be good. "I just... I just want a piece of chocolate and go night-night." "Me too, squirt. Me too."