Rescued Raccoon & Life Missions

Having just gotten back from Tony Robbin's "A Date with Destiny", I realized that the mission in my life (past and future) has been to be an explorer, enjoy the adventure and to share the discoveries.  It is that reason that I decided to use Friday mornings as a time to share the discoveries.  

What I didn't realize that I would discover this last week was a small raccoon using my outdoor cat bed on the back deck.  The raccoon is the same color as my cat, Paka, who uses the bed whenever she stays out at night.  I often just reach down and pet her as I pass by when I cross the deck.  What a surprise when I heard a low growl from the bed as I was leaning down!  

There was several minutes of havoc as I was trying to keep my dogs away as a frightened, bundle lumbered out of the small semi-enclosed bed.  I soon realized that my small friend was blind in one eye, had an injured tail and seemed frail as it crawled up the deck railing then carefully moved along the top of the wood fence until it could climb on top of my garage roof.  

There it rested, spent quite some time cleaning himself like a cat and finally came off of the roof and disappeared down the alley.  I am new to the area and didn't know of any nearby animal shelters that could help this poor animal soul.  

The next morning, there he was, in his cat bed but he knew that when I get up, so do the dogs and he moved with more conviction off of the deck and out of yard.  He didn't look hungry but I suspect his been around for several weeks since the noticed that the cat's outdoor water bowl seemed to empty quickly during the night.

I had decided that if this fragile guy needed a place to live his life, I would accept him into our fold, as long as he was not dangerous to my other pets.  I let the neighbors know about him.  Since the weather has warmed up a bit, I see him in the neighborhood but he has not needed the warmth of my deck and Paka's bed.  

But what did this experience teach me?
I learned that sometimes we are frightened by an idea or situation.  In this case, I was initially frightened by an animal that could hurt my pets.  But if we take the time to look closer, we may see that it is not really a threat.  Then we can take the next step which is to treat it with love and acceptance.