Night visitors add interest to walk

Two things you should know.

First, weather permitting I walk with a friend, Doug Shaw, every morning. We meet in front of my house and follow a meandering route that's just a bit over four miles in length and leads through many of the neighborhoods in town. Doug is the president of our city council, so this gives him a eyes-on opportunity to check out what's going on.

Second, we live in Wauseon - located in a predominantly rural area, west of Toledo. Local readers will think I'm loco, but the geography lesson is because this column is also published in a number of weekly and daily newspapers throughout the state. Our town - as well as many other communities in Ohio - is a quaint, industrious, neighborly place surrounded by corn and bean fields, dairy farms and some woodlands.

Just before sunrise last Tuesday we were about a quarter of the way through the route, approaching North Park which located at about the center of the city, when movement between the sidewalk and the street caught our attention. Closer scrutiny in the pre-dawn light revealed two small deer.

The park is one of the town's originals, started in the 1850s. The city has recently installed a handsome new sign there. It has also ordered some new playground equipment. Apparently the deer had decided to check it out!

Finding deer in town is not that unusual, though. Several years ago a wayward buck, apparently upset at county government, crashed through a basement window in the courthouse. In the confusion which followed, several small offices and computers were destroyed before officers could arrive to deal with fellow. Fortunately, this was on a Saturday morning, so staff was away and no one was injured.

We've also had deer jump through picture windows at several apartments, scaring the dickens out of the residents.

The other sighting took place near the end of our walk that same morning. Doug pointed to a large raccoon on a garage roof, attempting to gain entrance into a cupola through several broken slats. It's not unusual to find raccoons, groundhogs, opossums and, yes, even a coyote in town. But, this sighting was special.

The masked bandit had been working the midnight shift - prowling neighborhood garbage cans with robbery in mind. His mate was already the cupola with several young'ens fast asleep. She stuck her head out to warn him to be quiet.

It was apparent father raccoon wasn't in the mood to be lectured, because he hissed and growled back at his mate. Standing her ground, she growled back at him! So, he growled back at her! This exchange continued for several moments.

Well, all that noise woke the kids, who started chattering excitedly. We guessed they were saying, "hey Dad's home! Did you bring us something good for breakfast?"

Dad had had enough. He pushed his mate out of the way before climbing through a hole in the cupola. That elicited an immediate response from the entire family, with every member putting in his two-cents worth, before finally quieting down.

Every morning since we check out that garage roof to see if the raccoon has returned. Finally, yesterday morning, we spotted him quietly slipping back into the cupola, for some shut-eye after a hard night's work. This time his wife wisely let him enter in peace.