It's a cold, rainy Friday morning and I'm home for the day with a pile of writing projects to work on.
My neighbors have trapped a raccoon on their roof for the second time this week and periodically I get up to stand by the dining room window, watching the poor thing try desperately to claw it's way out of the impossibly sturdy metal cage. They claim that the raccoons have been getting into the walls of the house and that they are setting them free after trapping them, but that didn't stop me from crying for over an hour on Tuesday when they trapped the first one.
On that first day I watched the raccoon huddle in its cage against the bright, cold daytime blusters. Sometime after nightfall, the landlord came to get it. I have no idea where he's "releasing" them. But last night I met a friend in the loop for dinner and coming home late, I walked through my neighborhood streets from the train station in the rain, having forgotten my umbrella. The landlord next door had replaced the raccoon trap after releasing the first one and I remember thinking, as I walked along in the rain, that I would be very upset if I got home to another one trapped again.
But there it was, an even bigger one. All night as I listened to the rain come down outside the windows, I thought about the raccoon, unprotected in its metal cage on the roof. And now it's morning and it's still there, even though they were supposed to get it "first thing." I've listened to it cry for the last 45 minutes and I sent an email to my neighbor telling her I think this is cruel. I'm not sure what to do besides trespass on their property with a ladder and release the poor thing.
I just really can't stand for cruelty of any kind. And I know this isn't that terrible but nonetheless, my heart breaks for the little guy out there. I just think that if you don't want an animal messing with your roof, and you're going to trap it, at least be a little more compassionate and don't make it sit in the cold rain all night.
Okay, enough of my tirade. It's Friday, about which I'm glad. I even like the gloomy weather outside, the cats sleeping in cozy perches all around the warm living room. I'm going to make some oatmeal and get started on writing in just a moment.
My friend Liz from Los Angeles is here this weekend and I can't wait to see her later. Her boyfriend of several years is Doug Pettibone, a singer-songwriter who also plays with Lucinda Williams. Tonight he's opening for Lucinda at the Riveria, which I'm looking forward to. Following the show, he's off to his next tour stop but Liz will spend the rest of the weekend with me and Greg. We just stayed with her when we were in LA, so it will be so fun to see her so soon again, as if we were real-time friends, like we used to be.
I just checked. The raccoon is still there.