Wild Life

When I lived in Montreal I had 'issues' with the street cats/neighbour's cats using my gardens as litter boxes.  Every spring I had the dubious pleasure of cleaning all that poop out of my gardens (gag gag)

So we move to Kingston - I put in glorious gardens - and am more than a little pleased to see that my neighbours have dogs - no cats - just dogs.  In fact since I have been here I have not seen one stray cat - or neighbourhood cat at all!!  My gardens were safe!!   I would not be cleaning cat poop out of my gardens or enduring the ammonia smell of their urine.

One early morning - very early - just as the sun was rising - I was sitting at the dining room table writing a blog and I looked out the window to see not one - but four - FOUR - raccoons calmly and with attitude walking across the railing of the deck.  I jumped up and in amazement watched them walk straight down the back yard along the fence - and then jump down over the back fence and disappear into the woods behind our house.

For days afterwards I sat with my camera by my side - wanting to snap a picture  of the wildlife as they made their way home after a long night of partying!  Sadly I never saw them again.  

Then the snow came.  And I have been watching in our backyard for foot prints.  We had had rabbits visit during the summer and I wondered if they would appear again in the winter. But the snow in our back yard stayed pristine.

Then this past week I started to notice BIG foot prints in the snow going from the back fence to the front deck and back again.  I mentioned them to W.  He snorted  - or some such acknowledgement.

This morning as I looked into the back yard I saw an army of foot prints through the snow.  I decided to take some snap shots and compare them to shots from google to verify these foot prints belong to my raccoon family. 

 

and here's the path they take...........

anyone  out there an expert on wildlife foot prints??? do they look like raccoon prints to you??? Google wasn't all that definitive.

 
Anyway - as I looked and snapped - I also saw whatever is using our backyard as a throughfare is also using a corner of the garden as a.............. TOILET.  and trust me folks when I say I would take nice little cat poop over this mountainous pile of frozen poop.  

W says that is what we get for living in the "country" .......... I just wonder how much yucky poop I am gonna have to clean up come spring.........