Dear St. Peter...

Tonight, while walking home from work along Spadina, my faith in humanity was both quashed and renewed.

I was crossing a little side street in Chinatown, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted something moving on the road. There were three baby racoons mvoing along the street toward Spadina. They were very cute, as racoons go. But also very young. They were barely bigger than a guinea pig. And they were also headed for a very busy street where they would get squished in no time.

There were at least 10 people standing at the corner with me, and at least half noticed the racoons and said "awwww...." but none of them tried to stop the babies from going to Spadina, which struck me as odd. If you think they're cute, then maybe you should stop them from heading in the path of many, many cars.

So, being the suck that I am for all animals, I started to shepherd the babies back from whence they came. I thought some of the people on the corner would help, but no. They were only little, and weren't violent at all. In fact, they seemed pretty damn scared and probably just wanted to get home. As I was guiding them away from Spadina, I heard a voice from above. No, no God. Some other guy with long hair called to me and said that the babies lived on the roof near his patio. And did I want his help to move them back to the roof. Thankfully, he and two of his friends came down to retrieve the babies. They lived there, so they had gloves to wear, but the gloves weren't necessary. The racoons didn't try to bite or really fight at all. One yelled a bit, and then covered his face and pooped. Poor thing. Each of the patio dwellers took a baby and headed to the roof. I thanked them for their help. They thanked me. And I thought we did the right thing and I felt good about it.

I know they were only racoons, but they were harmless babies. And it's not their fault that we've built on top of the land they used to call home. I'll try to remember then the next time they try to get into my garbage or wake me with a fight in the laneway behind my house.

New blog by talented newcomers...

I was working on this tonight instead: http://catfoodnation.blogspot.com/. Check it out!