What Has Been In My Garden There?

What has been in my garden there?

What critter has been stomping around without care?

Look at the many prints in the snow,

And look at the many directions they go...

What Has Been In My Garden There?

What has been in my garden there?

What critter has been stomping around without care?

Look at the many prints in the snow,

And look at the many directions they go.

Tiny little paw prints showing some claws,

I went out to look and stood with a pause,

Are there four toes or does it look like five?

It makes a difference so I can decide.

It won’t be a deer, no, those are not hooves,

And it won’t be a rabbit by the way that it moves,

A bear would be sleeping at this time of the year,

A cougar’s too big, maybe a bobcat, oh dear!

However, I am thinking it’s another small kind of critter,

One that looks like a bandit as he moves with a skitter,

I think it’s a raccoon, weaving by my place,

Out in the snow, creeping without grace.

I have not seen one with my own eyes,

They come in the night, the dark giving disguise,

They move about the garden while I’m asleep,

Leaving footprints in the snow that is, for them, often deep.

And there in the morning I see imprints in the snow,

Evidence they have been there, I surely know,

With little tracks in lines out by my fence,

Messy paw imprints with claw marks their only offence.

By Lise Parton