Today after dinner (so I guess I could have said 'this evening'), I went to go feed the ducks and geese as usual. Normally I bring them a muffin but today I brought them a bagel so they were very happy. I sat down on the bench near them and began to toss out parts of the bagel. I got about halfway through with the entire bagel when all of the sudden, a raccoon comes out from under the bench and looks up at me as if it were saying, "May I please have some?"

Naturally, being the animal-lover that I am, I broke off a piece and gave it to the raccoon and then went on feeding the ducks and geese. I expected the raccoon to run off and eat the piece of bread by itself like any normal raccoon would, however, this was not a normal raccoon. It was then that I finally gave into the raccoon's wishes and asked it (out loud) if it wanted the rest. It looked up at me happily and I placed the rest of the bagel on the bench and it once again looked up at me and it's eyes said, "C-Can I take this? A-Are you sure it's okay?" It didn't dwell on that last question too long for it stood up on it's hind legs and grabbed the bagel off the bench and then scurried off into the bush behind the bench.

After I feed the ducks and geese, I normally like to take a walk around the pond to get some exercise when I noticed the ducks had begun to follow me wondering where the food that I had for them went. I turned around, showed them my hands and said (once again out loud) that I had no more food. I was about to continue on my walk when all of the sudden, the raccoon from before walks out of the bushes and slowly begins to walk over to me. Normally, I'd walk away but I was feeling brave so I stood there. One time it almost ran away but after that, it walked up to me and began to sniff my toes (I was wearing flip-flops). It sniffed my left foot first and then looked up at me. Silently, I was praying that it wouldn't bite me and that it didn't have rabies. Then something unusual happened: it pawed my shoe. "Is this edible?" it was asking me. It wanted to eat my shoe. I just stood there, not wanting to scare it. It sniffed my foot agian and then moved onto my right foot before running of. It was then that I noticed that there were two raccoons there, both babies and both, I assumed to be siblings.

All in all, I think they have accepted me as one of their kind and I'll let you know when I decide to move in with them.