We still have raccoons around our house, but they were never a real nuisance—until tonight. Dobby burst frantically through the dog door, and I followed puzzled to see what was the matter. Two raccoons were sitting in the backyard just rubbing their hands together, unfazed by the rapid motion from Dobby. Oddly, Dobby was nowhere to be seen. I stepped outside to shoo the raccoons off, but they didn’t move. So I stepped up to one to give it a kick. From the force of my kick, the raccoon flew over to the corner of the house and somehow landed softly, while the other raccoon fled my presence to be with the other raccoon.

They ran around the corner of the house and climbed over the chain link fence. One raccoon ran off into the street never to be seen again, but the other stayed and started to climb back over the fence into my yard. In order to stop the raccoon from climbing over the fence, I grabbed the apex of the fence that was above the raccoon. The raccoon hissed at me, and I hissed at the raccoon in return.

As I continued to hiss at the raccoon, I felt a hand pressing on my shoulder and voice saying, “Andrew, it’s okay”. Suddenly, I was in bed, and Danielle had her hand on my shoulder. Slowly, because I was very groggy, I started to realize what had happened and I started to chuckle. Danielle rose from bed and left the room to get ready for work. As I lay in bed, emerging from my grogginess, I thought that Danielle might be worried about me so I went to tell her that I was fine.

I found her outside of the bedroom and she asked me if I was okay. I smiled and I affirmed to her that I was. She inquired what happened, and I told her that I dreamt of aggressive raccoons. A dramatic pause ensued, and Danielle just stared at me with wide eyes. I kept smiling at Danielle and a smile crept onto Danielle’s face, and we both started to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. I had dreamt about aggressive raccoons, but, from Danielle’s perspective, she had thought I was having a nightmare. I asked what I was doing in my sleep, and Danielle told me that I moaned then started to laugh. We agreed it was a funny morning, and Danielle even expressed gratitude for this event because her second alarm had not gone off to wake her for work.