This morning there was a raccoon wandering around our yard at 10:30am. I've seen them after dark once or twice and we see them on our walks sometimes. But never in our yard during the day. I'm sorry I didn't get better pictures but it's not like they stopped and posed for me.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but this is a mama raccoon and she has a baby with her that she's protecting and she's looking into the yard next door.

Then we figured out why. A second baby was stuck on the other side of the fence. You can see it in the lower left. It was so sad, watching the mama and the little guy reaching through the fence and trying to dig or climb or figure out how to get back together. Bob and I watched all this unfold from the kitchen window. We thought about trying to help but were afraid of scaring them even more. I was also afraid a cat might try to attack the little one. We could tell the mama was agitated. Then we saw our neighbor Joe and he took a shovel and scooped up the little guy and moved him to the gate.

Finally the reunited family dashes back across the yard. One little guy was running and mama was dragging the other one by the scruff of the neck. Unfortunately it's hard to see in this picture but if you look carefully you can see three tails.

Here one of the little ones following the mama as she drags the other one into the hedge. It was very cute and we were quite relieved although we did remember that raccoons are sort of like big stinky rats that tear up the yard and destroy my garden. But still, don't hurt the babies.