What's that Noise??

So, I have to tell you about the adventure we had last Wednesday night. I went to a Mary Kay party with my sister, mom, and 2 friends, and Robert went to his friend Darren's to play games/talk books. I got home at about 10:45. As I was exiting my car, and digging through my purse for the house keys, I heard something bang against the backyard door of our garage, and a sound like a dog whimpering. Scared out of my mind, I ran to the door and fumbled until I got it open. As I yanked on the handle, I heard a dog snarl, like it was going to attack me. I had NO IDEA what the heck was going on, raced in, and locked the door behind me.

Frantically, I called Rob to ask where he was. He was about 10 min away. I kept him on the phone the whole way home as I cowered in the kitchen, frightened to go anywhere near the windows (which all had the blinds open), or the doors. As soon as he got here, I rushed to the door to open it for him. Brave man that he is, he marched to the back door, and flicked on the light to the patio. The only thing we could see was a small animal lying still on the back patio. We had no idea what it was, but saw that one of it's paws was twitching. We were sad for the obviously newborn infant whatever-the-heck-it-was, but didn't feel good about trying to go outside and take care of it. So we left it there. Temperatures fell, and it rained that night. The next morning, the creature was dead.

I called Wildlife Services to ask them what to do with it, and I took pictures of it. They told us to pick it up with a plastic bag around our hands and throw it in the trash. I emailed them pics and they said it was most likely a baby raccoon. The only thing we can imagine that may have happened is that I disturbed the mother while either A) giving birth, or B) transporting the baby to a safer location. The dog and crashing noise also may have meant that a dog had happened upon them and tried to attack the mother raccoon. We'll probably never know. But, it was a terrifying few moments for me, and I'm glad to have a husband that is strong and brave and able to be cool-headed in scary situations. We feel sorry for the baby coon, but don't think we could have done anything different. The joys of living in a "rural" (or formally so) community! PS... I deleted the pics. They were too depressing.