Living in the suburbs, we have a tendency to see some wild critters every now and again. Unfortunately, there is a high possibility they would have been run over but you can catch the live variety if you manage to be outside during the right time.

In the old house, my father-in-law loved to sit out in the garage in the wee hours of the morning. He would open the garage door and there were a couple of times in which a raccoon became a bit too curious and started meandering over to the dark abyss. He would shut the door so fast lol. The raccoons over here are not necessarily vicious, but they do carry rabies, so you never know.

In the same vein, we have also seen opossums. We call them possums here even though I know technically, that is not the right species, but you will get weird looks when you sound out the “Oh” sound lol so please forgive me for using the shorter version. I love possums, I have always thought they were so cute, so I have always looked for them in the dusk hours. They do not carry rabies, so I have never been hesitant around them like the raccoons. I have seen multiple mamas carrying babies on her back, which is always super cool and neat lol They just have some questionable freeze mechanics to them lol

Probably the most dangerous wild animals that were regularly in the neighborhood were coyotes. There were train tracks down the street a little way, and you could hear the howling and braying of the packs as they would traverse the grassy areas with all the pylons. There would be multiple stories on our neighborhood Facebook page in which somebody’s small dog or cat was killed by the coyotes. They would be understandably upset, however there comes a point of accountability. If you are feeding the local cat population or allowing your teeny tiny dog to have free unlimited range to the yard, the coyotes will smell that and designate your house as a food supplier. I have had to explain the food chain to grown adults on multiple occasions because they just were not getting it. If you do not want wild animals knocking at your door, do not leave food out and take your yappy dog thing inside. Thank you 🙂

Besides these normal occurrences in my own neighborhood, you can find a decent deer population out west where my family lives. The majority of people out there have feeders so you can look outside your window and see a whole family eating together. I did not realize how common twins are for deer, but we have seen SO many does and bucks with twin babies. Once during a road trip to the hill country, my husband had to swerve due to a rogue deer sprinting into the road. Luckily, we did not hit it, but man does that wake you up faster and longer than coffee.