One stormy night three raccoons were digging in trashcans. Ricky, Mickey, Kiwi were their names. Ricky was the one with a scar over its left eye. Mickey was the one with the hairless tail. Kiwi was the chubby one. A dog was watching them. He was a German Shepherd locked up in a cage in the backyard of his house. Kiwi was fixing her fur in the rain. Mickey stared at her blankly, "You're fixing your fur in the rain.. It's just going to keep getting messed up." Ricky threw an apple core at Mickey. He was in a trashcan throwing out things they could make good use of. "Watch where you throw things!"
"Then watch your surroundings. I'm the only one working here." Ricky retorted. He jumped out the trashcan and picked up their belongings. "You guys search the other trashcans. I'll be back later." Ricky left. Kiwi kicked over a trashcan and pointed inside as if she was demanding Mickey to go in.
Mickey looked at her, "You better go in there yourself. I'm not digging in the trashcans around here. I'm going to a different house." Mickey ran to different trashcans across the street.
Kiwi snickered, "There's nothing to be afraid of."
"There's nothing to be afraid of, eh?"
Kiwi lowered her ears and looked around, "Who's that?" Suddenly there was wild barking. Kiwi’s fur stood on it's ends and she quickly ran for cover by instinct.
“Stupid raccoons. I’ll get them one day. They’ll regret ever coming to this neighborhood.” The dog said.
Kiwi saw Mickey and walked up behind him. Mickey looked at Kiwi, “You done searching the other trashcans yet? We need as much material we can get.” Kiwi shook her head. Mickey sighed, “Whatever.” Mickey and Kiwi searched together for an hour. They found thrown out food, old clothes, newspapers, and other stuff they thought looked cool or adorable. Ricky was at their secret hideout. Their secret hideout was underground. They didn’t need light because they were fine without it. The hideout was very roomy. It could hold up to thirty-five pounds of trash.
Ricky was organizing his treasures into piles of what good they are to him. Don’t know why I have, maybe useful, for sure useful, and I’ll keep forever. Those were the names of the piles he had. Ricky was very organized. He sometimes got out of control and organized his partners piles. Kiwi had two piles. Don’t care and I don’t care. The only thing Kiwi cared for was her appearance and males that were attractive to her liking. Mickey had one, mines. Mickey would just dropped off his stuff and go out to get more. He didn’t care about neatness. Ricky finished organizing his treasures and ran to the others. “Don’t you guys just like collecting treasure? It’s fun and we get free stuff.”
“Why are you so cheery all of a sudden? You’re usually the downer.” Kiwi asked in concern.
“Yeah, Ricky. Is something going on we should know about?” Mickey said.
“No. Not really. I just enlarged my pile, for sure useful, by three tail rings.” Ricky said blankly. Tail rings were their measurements. It wasn’t accurate but it was useful and understandable.
“Wow. What a weirdo..” Mickey spoke. Kiwi smacked the back of his head. Mickey rephrased his words, “I mean, what an accomplishment.”
Ricky shook his head. “I don’t care what you think you ignorant beast. Just do what you usually do and keep off my path.” Mickey lowered his head in submission and frowned. Ricky walked passed Mickey into a knocked over trashcan. He dug out more treasure and left. Mickey relaxed once he no longer saw Ricky in sight.
Kiwi stared at him, “Wow. Ricky called you an ignorant beast. I guess he‘s getting sick of your sarcasm.” Mickey ignored her and dug in the trashcans. The raccoons spent all night going back and forth. To and fro the secret hideout. As they saw one hint of light in the sky, they went into their secret hideout and rested.
The dog was already asleep once the raccoons were no longer in hearing distant. His owner came out and released him from the cage. The German Shepherd ran freely around his owner. “How ya doing, Max?” Max barked joyfully. His owner petted Max’s head and felt water so he went inside to grabbed a towel to dry him off from yesterday’s rain. “Sorry you couldn’t come in yesterday. My grandparents were visiting and they have allergies.” Max had no clue to what his owner was saying. He never understood humans.
His owner saw his trashcans tipped over. He sucked his teeth and sighed, “Not again. Every morning I have to clean up this. Those stupid raccoons won’t leave the neighborhood alone. Wish they would leave.” Once his owner was done cleaning, Max was locked up in the cage again. Max laid on his stomach and sighed, “At least I stretched before I got back in. I needed to stretch my muscles. They are so crammed in this tiny cage. I need a new bigger one.” Max was in the cage the whole day. His owner was busy with his grandparents.
It was soon sunset and his owner came out to play for a while. Max was excited and full of energy. His owner threw a Frisbee as far as his backyard stretched. Max chased after it. He tried to catch it but he missed and it landed on the floor. Then there was a scream. It was from within the house. Max’s owner’s grandmother scream for she saw her husband unconscious on the kitchen floor. His owner ran inside the house and forgot about Max. He closed the kitchen door and helped his grandmother carry his grandfather to the car. They needed to get him to the hospital as soon as possible.
Max sat outside feeling abandoned. He had the Frisbee in his mouth waiting for his owner to come back. The Frisbee fell from his mouth as he laid on the grass. He sighed. Hours passed and his owner has not yet returned. Loud noises came from the trashcans. Max’s ears twitched. He instantly knew it was the raccoons. The wind blew in his direction and the scent of raccoon was flowing into his nostrils. He could hear them talking.
“Hey, Ricky, what do you think we’ll do with the things we have in the hideout?” Asked Mickey.
“I don’t know. Use it before we move out I guess. At least we have things to eat while we work.” Ricky said while eating a banana peel. Kiwi grabbed a piece from Ricky and ate it.
“You sure are right about that. I found my favorite! The crunchy stuff.” Mickey found carrot bits. He liked eating hard stuff.
Kiwi grabbed a carrot bit from Mickey and ate it. “This is the third can we went to, right?” Ricky nodded.
Max licked his lips. He was about to eat real meat for the first time in his life though raccoons are not often eaten by humans. Max stayed camouflaged by the grass and the dark. He crouched closer and closer but slowly. He didn’t want to alarm the raccoons of his presence. The raccoons were too busy digging in the trashcans. Kiwi was the closest to Max so she was most likely to be the first to be attack. She is a female though. He probably wouldn’t strike her at all. Seconds passed and the suspense was growing in him. He couldn’t find the perfect moment to surprise them.
Mickey tried climbing into the trashcan but fell inside and tumbled it over. Kiwi and Ricky were both laughing at Mickey. The opening of the trashcan was facing the other way. Mickey was safe momentarily. Max slowly approached one of the raccoon’s tail. He quickly snapped his teeth into the bushy tail and used his paw to trap the raccoon from running away. Max tore the tail off and his weight on the raccoon’s body killed it. As the tail came off, blood scattered all over the ground and on the other raccoon’s fur. One down, two to go, thought Max. Blood started to stain his teeth as time went by.
“KIWI!” Ricky shouted. Ricky was in shock. His fur was bloodied and his eyes were watery with fear of death. Max dropped the detached tail and took one step closer to Ricky. Ricky turned around and ran.
Mickey saw Ricky running away. “Where you goin-” Before he could finish his sentence, he saw Max chasing after Ricky, Mickey gasped. They were out of sight so he started to run after them. By the time he saw Ricky, he was dead. He looked around for Max. He was nowhere in sight. Mickey’s eyes started to tear up. Soon enough, he noticed something breathing right on his neck. Mickey turned around and fell. It was Max. Mickey cried, “Please! Don’t kill me!! I still have a long life to live out!”
“I don’t care about how long you have left to live. I shall spare you for you did not dig in my trashcan as much as your partners. But remember this, never return to my territory.” Max warned. Max turned around and left. Mickey kept those words of advice in mind. He didn’t want to get killed.