Things That Go Bump in the Night

Last night as Don and I were laying in bed, settling for the night when we heard a thump noise. At our house certain types of thump noises are not unusual (Rye jumping off the counter, Barley jumping on the cat tree, Barley throwing her baby off the cat tree, you get the idea), but this was unusual. It sort of sounded like a meaty thump, like a cat body hitting something.Hmm, better check it out we decide, right as we hear it again. I rush out of bed to the living room to see what is going on, hoping it is nothing terrible. There at the sliding glass door in the living room stand Rye. And he is HUGE. I mean totally puffed up, his tail. his body, his back. And he is very.very.very. mad. huffing and puffing and pretty quick he goes THUMP. Right into the sliding glass door, hissing and spitting. Barley was half puffed, hunkered down on her pillow, wide eyed and watching. I could not see what had gotten them so worked up, until it came a little closer. An extremely large raccoon was literally face to face with Rye with only the glass door in between. And even puffed up Rye looked small compared to this 'coon. Rye was determined to attack, kill, or chase off this potential attacker and kept up thumping into the slider.I was a little scared to try to pick him up since he was so angry, so Don went over and turned on the outside light and whacked on the glass to encourage the raccoon to go away. He finally did but it took about another hour for Rye to settle down. It was pretty amazing to see the huge raccoon so close to the house, but a little scary too.