crownofpins:

I kept on hearing high-pitched screaming and squeaking tonight. Finally, after careful contemplation, I realized it’s the time of year when the raccoons come up from the forests.

You can tell when they tire themselves out yelling at the garbage cans, because they start to sound like squeaky Radio Flyers moving sporadically in the distance.

Edit to add: now they’re lackadaisically wolf-whistling. Raccoons are ridiculous animals.

We had a raccoon pull some loose stacked bricks aside, go under our house and get lost. A lot of screaming happened from under the floor. Sounded like the monkey version of a banshee having a panic attack. It found its way out eventually. 

We had to use a lot more loose bricks and rocks to hide the raccoon entrance, they kept going under, finding the hollow walls (old house, no insulation), and climbing up into the attic to wander around, push stuff everywhere, and be noisy.

They are ridiculous little animals with strange hands and even stranger voices. I love them.