raccoon

when you live in brooklyn you tend to think of yourself as this special sort of creature that's neither of the city nor of the suburbs. it's one of those best of both worlds deals where you're ten minutes from everything but you might actually have a yard and see trees from your window. sometimes, though, you're reminded that you live on an island full of wild animals. and not so wild animals. and plain ridiculousness.

there is, of course, the ocean and all its attendant wildlife- fish, crabs, mollusks. and if you live near prospect park you might see the occasional horse crossing the street. then there's flatbush. a few years ago i heard a sound that was at once completely familiar and also simply not placeable in my set of neighborhood sounds. i looked out my window and saw a massive bay horse prancing down the sidewalk. not the street. the sidewalk. one morning i found myself face to face with a fairly large rooster. worried he'd be hit by a car, i tried to catch him. do not try to catch a rooster.

last spring there was a family of opossums outside my school. construction had confused them and they didn't know where they were said the animal control people. does it matter where in brooklyn you are if you're an opossum? you're still in brooklyn.

today i let my dogs out into the backyard. there was a cat creeping along the fence that separates the yard from the subway cut. it was large and it waddled. with a stripey tail. it was not a cat at all. what is a raccoon doing in the middle of brooklyn in the middle of the day? okay, the obvious answer is having a wicked case of rabies, so i shooed the hounds in and kept my eyes peeled.

what i'm really waiting for is one of those sewer alligators. or a white tiger. maybe even a monkey of some sort.