Last night, just as it got almost pitch-black, Boza and I came upon a creature that was a big as Boza and stood on his back legs and tried to start a fight with us. Boza froze and until I could see what it was we were up against, my trusty walking stick held the overgrown critter at bay. Then as it swiped at my walking stick that I stuck in its face, it decided that we were too stupid to run and he ran away himself…
I really thought at first we had a small bear cub and I started first to look around for a momma bear. Boza and I could have been in trouble with a momma bear and baby bear. Panic mode was starting to raise its ugly head. Then as the angry chatter of a raccoon hit my ears and I got close enough to see in the impending darkness, I realized with a calming settling relief that we had a good ole pain in the ass raccoon…
I have seen many raccoons and I have hunted raccoons and this was the biggest raccoon I have ever seen and Boza looked at me as if to say, “What the hell was that?”
The final look at the raccoon was when the street light (yes we have one street light in our village,) popped on after resetting from the bulb going out and in its dim light I got a full view of our new found buddy, The Russian Raccoon…
So I did some investigation and found that some low level intelligent people brought raccoons to Russia in the 1930’s and being the survivable and invasive species they are, we now have raccoons in our tiny village and where there is one raccoon spotted, there are many more not spotted. He has a family somewhere nearby. Raccoons spread fast and after 80 plus years of free roaming, Russian soon will have to have coon hunting parties to keep them under control…
There is a native critter called Raccoon Dog (left,) but they are not Raccoons as I know a raccoon. What Boza and I came upon was a raccoon, a skinny huge wild raccoon, with full mask and attitude at seeing us… 🙂
Allowing them to live in our village will cause much damage to empty homes during the winter, as they will get in easily to seek shelter and food. Now I know what dug under our village home this last year…
I learn something new everyday and I see new things everyday. Even if all that I see is not for the best, I learn and learn and learn, as I walk, talk, drive and experience Russia…
Now you know a little bit more about Russia…
Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…