Adventure discovered just outside a window

I live with a dense forest 15 feet from my window. That in itself is a beauty to behold and I partake of this view every chance I can get. I have bird and squirrel feeders on my two large windows. By early October, the leaves were beginning to turn in preparation for fall and do their yearly thing.

One day I watched a squirrel race up a 3-inch diameter limb and rapidly, at its bending zenith, leap several feet across to another tree. Then, seconds later another furry-tailed acrobat proceeded to repeat the passage. It was like two young adults racing on a city sidewalk. Is October squirrel mating season in an Arkansas forest? I’m not sure, but it sure looks like it.

Whatever, my windows are a panorama to nature. I’d recommend it to anyone.

Earlier, I watched the squirrels and birds jockey for positions on one of the feeders. I turned away to eat a sandwich and out of the corner of my eye I saw something seemingly much larger on my bird/squirrel feeder. I turned quickly, tripping over my shoes, and saw this unknown, larger creature joining my menagerie. This animal was much bigger than my feeder and hairier. What was it?

Its head was turned so I wasn’t able to positively identify it, but “raccoon” oddly came to mind. I say “oddly” because I don’t remember encountering a raccoon in my life or having seen a picture of one.

Because of its size, I wisely decided to not try to shoo it away, but I didn’t want him/ her to damage my stacked bird feeder. I watched and quietly waited.

The raccoon’s fur was a medium russet coloring with streaks of dirt. Meanwhile, it tended to ignore me, probably because I was still and quiet — which was rare.

The raccoon was somewhat slowly choosing his next meal and I couldn’t make up my mind about an approach. The animal wasn’t necessarily “cute.” It was simply a very furry, four-foot high animal with a large overbite.

Do I beat it to death with a hammer? Scream to frighten it away? Ignore it?

Anyway, as large as it was, I didn’t want “Rocky” (I named it) to damage the feeder, so I decided to let him quietly drift away.

Rocky didn’t damage the feeder, himself or any of my animal friends and luckily Rocky slowly exited stage right, but did return briefly the following afternoon to sample that day’s offerings.

Yes, it was another interesting encounter outside my bedroom window in Fayetteville. Will there be more encounters? Gosh! I truly hope so.

ALLEN CRENSHAW

Fayetteville