Turns out we have to get the house reroofed, which is a whole deal unto itself, but beyond the scope of this post. So we have a guy over yesterday morning to give us an estimate on the job, and after he's been traipsing about on the roof taking measurements, he asks me, "Do you have raccoons?"

Now remember, we do live in the city. Perhaps some far flung people reading this think, "But you're in Minnesota. Don't you live in a sod house along with your goats?" I assure you, I do not have to mow the roof, and the goats are in the backyard along with the outhouse. But we do get a surprising amount of animals for the city, partially because we live across the street from a small college that includes some woods and a duck pond on its grounds. We get a lot of rabbits, and it's not unheard of to have a small flock of ducks in our front yard.

Back to the raccoons. "I haven't seen any. Why?" I respond to the contractor. He laughs. "Because, I saw a lot of turds up there." So after he leaves I go upstairs, open the skylight in the bathroom, and peek out on the roof. Holy crap. We must have the Jack Palance of raccoons eating all his roughage on our roof. It looks like the yard of that annoying neighbor who never cleans up after his dog. And not just any dog. A Newfoundland.

I'm praying for rain. A long, hard rain.