Walking back from dinner at Far Niente tonight (thanks, Mom!), Jeff and I were distracted at the corner of Kenwood and California by the sound of something scrambling up a tree. Drawing a little closer, we could see it was a pretty sizeable racoon just a few feet up the trunk, frozen in its climb to watch us. We stood still for a while, and after looking at us for a few moments it continued on up the tree.

Then I noticed another little racoon face peeking out of the storm drain near the tree – but as soon as she spotted us, she dashed back into the drain (we were clearly visible in the light from a street lamp). After a few more such false starts, we walked on past the tree and stood still in the shadows until she felt brave enough to leave the storm drain. She paused next to the curb and called up to the one already in the tree – kind of a cross between a bird’s trill and a purr. Actually, it really reminded me of the noise made by the little venom-spitting dinosaur that kills Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park. But cuter. He called back down to her, and she made her way up the tree to join him.

Very cute.