REEE! REEE!

We have raccoons living in the general area of our building. (For some reason spell check really really isn't liking the plural of raccoon.  I don't know why but it's insisting I remove the s!)

I think there are babies or younglings (it's that time of year and all) as I have been hearing "baby calling for Momma" trills of late.

But I also think I either have an anxious raccoon or those babies are easily scared because a number of nights now I've heard what sounds like big squealing noises and when I googled it, it was suggested that those are alarm noises.

It makes sense that it's the babies left "home alone" when Mom goes out to gather food at night but I have also made up a little story in my brain that there's a raccoon with anxiety who keeps getting frightened by things and squealing in shock before calming down enough to be like "oh geez Steve, don't sneak up on me like that!"

One (or so I guess) of them got one of our trash bags out of the trash last week (I assume it was them but it could have been a human looking for things I suppose) and carried some bags up on to the roof I can see.  They must have been former food containers with food scent still in them and I was bummed that I'd have to see this trash until the next big windstorm but over the course of a few days one raccoon that I'd guess is a teenager kept testing them for food and all I know is they're now out of sight (and probably in a bush or tree, d'oh.)

But yeah, animals can make some noises that actually sound like *other* animals and in this case, I have learned that raccoons can sound like squealing pigs.  Go figure.