I guess there are lots of stories like these as I know I have heard others tell me about their raccoon tales.
It was late in the evening, about midnight, and I was walking down the stairs that lead into the foyer. I could see out the front door window as I walk down and I saw the form of an animal just reaching the top of the outside steps.
I opened the front door to see a few raccoons. Fortunately there is a storm door so despite the fact they were a few feet from me it was just fine. As I was trying to adjust to my brain getting over the idea that “it must just be one of the neighborhood cats” and it just wasn’t, I noticed one of them was fishing around in a box right near the door. Our cat’s box of cat toys. Sitting on the porch because I was cleaning today but apparently I never brought it back in from the porch. Anyway it turns out one of them grabbed a small red ball, liked it, and proceeded to walk away with its prize.
I flicked on the porch light and opened the storm door a bit. I expected them to bolt in having all this happen. Just the opposite. Two of them (there were three, I found out) turned towards me and started walking towards the door. I closed it and they both came right up to the door, looking in the glass and not in the least bit perturbed. They acted as curiously as a cat and seemed like they wouldn’t have minded to have come in the house.
They did eventually wander off. Like a marauding band of hoodlums. Off to their next porch raid in search of more trinkets and, I am sure, hoping to find some morsels of food.
You can discover what other New England mammals you might expect to find, many of which will never end up coming to your front door for a visit.