Most mornings, the alarm goes off in our Los Gatos home at 6:30am. I find my way to the coffee pot, flip it on, and sit down at my desk to see what emails may have come in overnight. My home office looks out to a small front courtyard; ours is a pseudo-Spanish style home and the view to the street goes through a small covered archway that connects one part of the U-shaped house with another.

As I sipped on my coffee and waited for the email to load today, a shadowy four-legged creature meandered across the archway roof. It was in siloutte - all shadows as the sun hadn't risen high enough to illuminate it. A cat? A squirrel? A possum? It sported a long snout and a fairly thick tail. Seemed to be a racoon. While I was still processing the possibilities, a second animal waddled right behind.

They were so cute!

I squealed with delight at these cartoonish animals so close. Jim and I hustled outside to catch a better view of them. The dog treated this like a four-alarm fire and raced around the house barking, and even when we returned inside and told her to hush, she wouldn't abandon her duty of announcing a huge danger. The neighbors must have wondered.

After about 10 minutes and the return of calm, I got a second viewing as one of them retraced its steps along the crest of the arch in better light and a second one snuggled under the overhang between the archway and the bedroom wing. It was so funny to look up and see the racoon eyes studying me from under the eaves!

In truth, they're adorable as visitors but we wouldn't want them to stay. I'm not sure how they got there, or what they expected to find on my roof. Perhaps a neighbor leaves pet food outside that attracts them? Or maybe they like one of our fruit trees? I don't know. We have seen possum in the peach tree, squirrels everywhere and sometimes a rat tries to take up residence with us. Never before racoons, though. I hope they nest somewhere else in Belwood...and just come back to visit once in awhile.