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A whole family of raccoons clustering around a big bowl of Friskies.  This was taken about two in the morning...

...and then, about 2:30 AM, I found two of them using the pool.  Don't these boys know you need to wait at least an hour after you eat before you go in swimming?

Raccoon washing his food in the pool.  I do the same thing with cereal.

This is a new cat in the neighborhood...an adorable little brown and black feline who apparently was an indoor cat at one point and desperately wants to be one again.  I haven't gotten a photo of it yet but most evenings, she puts her front paws up on the sliding glass door to the patio and literally pounds on it as if yelling, "Let me in!  Let me in!"  We're feeding her out back and we put a little pet carrier out there to serve as a shelter from the rain.  Very affectionate little lady.

So one night, a possum wanders up to eat from the cat dish and suddenly, the above cat (who rarely strays far from my back door) shows up.  The possum rushes over under a nearby table and freezes.  The cat wasn't about to hurt the possum but the possum wasn't about to leave as long as the cat was there.  So I stepped out onto the back porch, took this photo, then brought the cat inside for a while.  Ten minutes later, the possum walked hesitantly out from under the table, ate a few more bites of food, then took off.

That's all for now but check back for more pictures of creatures in My Backyard.  Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to find a couple of deer and antelope out there any day now...