On wildlife

Warning: this post has almost nothing to do with knitting. Except at the end, where I remind you about the pattern giveaway I'm running.

This is Nelly.

While she spends 90% of her life sleeping, she occasionally suffers from brief bouts of Being Awake.

Poor thing.

And after she's eaten half her weight in kibble, she still needs to entertain herself until she can fall asleep again. 

She spends quite a bit of time at our back door, AKA, the Kitteh TV. It's a big sliding glass door, with a clear view of:

squirrels
birds
rabbits
feisty leaves blowing by
confused bugs flinging themselves against the glass

She especially loves the bugs, as they'll spend hours buzzing around the door, trying to find a way in, while she bats at them, claws at them, bites at them, and generally does them absolutely no harm whatsoever, because they're separated by glass.

Last night, Nelly was making quite a racket at the door, jumping, pawing, and meowing. At first I assumed she was chasing a moth, but then I remembered that it's December, and, praise Jebus, the bugs are FINALLY gone for the season. So perhaps a rabbit or chipmunk had wandered close to the house. I got up to investigate.

I found Nelly sitting a couple feet from the door, staring way up at the top. Certainly not a rabbit. Maybe it was a moth.

(Or possibly nothing. Nelly has a very active imagination. She's one of those cats that stares at ABSOLUTELY NOTHING down a dark hallway while you're home alone, just to scare the crap out of you.)

It was dark out, and I figured turning on the light would scare away whatever it was.

So I got closer to the door.

And closer.

I was inches from the door, and I saw . . . something.

What is that? It looks like a . . . shadow? But there are no trees close to the house to cast shadows on that part of the door. And it keeps moving, bobbing up and down . . . what is it??

Ok, wait, something is coming into focus . . .

It's . . .

It's . . .



A RACCOON!

I was eye-to-eye with a raccoon, who had climbed to the top of the outside screen, and was bobbing his head up and down as I squinted my eyes, and tilted my head, trying to figure out what he was.

He didn't seem particularly bothered to find me all up in his business. I, on the other hand, was just so startled to find myself in a staring contest with a raccoon, I jumped back and shrieked, scaring him off.

I sure hope he comes back tonight.

I think Nelly misses him.


And speaking of missing things, don't miss out on the chance to win a copy of my newest pattern, the Columbia Inn Mittens, and the yarn to knit them! This giveaway ends Saturday!