Littles’ Fuzzy Friend

     The evening started out like any other. Littles was sitting at the table eating

dinner with his daddy and mama. Just when Littles was almost done eating he

heard a scratch, scratch, scratch at the front door.

     Raising his eyebrows, Littles whispered, “What’s that?” Daddy and Mama
must not have heard him because they just kept right on talking to each other.
     Raising his voice a bit, Littles’ said, “Mama!” “Mama!” “I want down.” After
making sure Littles had ate most of his dinner, Mama said it was ok to get
down.
     Littles slowly tip-toed towards the front door. Very quietly he pressed his ear
against it. SCRATCH, SCRATCH, SCRITCH! Littles jumped back away from
the door so fast he almost fell down.   Again Littles crept up to the door and
pressed his ear against it. All he could hear was his own heart beating
fast. THUMP- THUMP! THUMP- THUMP! THUMP-THUMP! Just when he
was about to give up listening, Littles hard a faint gurgley, cooing, sound.
     Littles’ turned around and looked at Daddy and Mama. They were still
eating. Littles decided to open the front door. He reached up and grabbed the
door handle. Ever so slowly, Littles’ opened the door. He opened the door just
enough for him to stick his head out. Littles’ eyes widened and bulged! His
heart jumped into his throat! “Wow!” He cried, as he came face to face with the
strangest looking animal he had ever seen!
     Looking back at Littles’ were two yellow eyes that seemed to glow in the
dark. Around the eyes it wore a black mask. The mask looked just like the one
Littles wore for Halloween! The animal was fuzzy like a cat. It had ears like a
cat and a long tail like a cat. In fact Littles thought it looked a lot like his own
cat, except for the color.
     This animal was black and grey striped. It was also a lot bigger than Littles’
cat! Because it looked so much like a ct Littles thought he would try calling
it. “Kitty, Kitty, Kitty Littles’ whispered. Suddenly the animal rose up and
waddled towards him. Littles’ screamed with fear and excitement as he saw the
things’ feet! Those were not pretty, kitty, feet! Those things looked like little,
black hands! Not just in front, but back too!
     Littles slammed the front door shut and ran screaming,
“Animal!” “Animal!” to Daddy and Mama. Mama caught Littles’ in her arms and
Daddy went to look out the front door. Just like Littles, Daddy opened the door
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook”>slowly and peeked out. Littles looked bewildered as Daddy started to
chuckle. Daddy said there was nothing to be afraid of. He also told Littles to go
and get a hot dog out of the refrigerator.
     Littles’ brought the hot dog to Daddy. Taking a hold of Littles’ hand, Daddy
opened the door again. Littles started to squeal when he saw the animal again.
     “Shh, it’s ok” Daddy said and held the hot dog out for the animal. The
animal sat upright, just like a dog would! Out it stuck its little black hand and
grabbed the hot dog!
     “Mama!” “Mama!” Littles cried. Mama came over to the door and looked
out.
     “It’s a raccoon!” Mama said and started to laugh as the three of them stood
there, watching the raccoon. That was the first of what turned out to be many
nights with Littles’ fuzzy friend. The raccoon!