Desperation!

Toronto is known as the raccoon capital of the world. Before I came to Canada raccoons were top of my list of things I HAD to see! But unbelievably by this stage in my stay I still hadn't seen one.

The Toronto dwellers opinion of raccoons is pretty universal - yes, they're cute, yes, they're clever - but please make them go away! And no-one could believe I hadn't actually managed to see one (nor could anyone really understand why I even *wanted* to see one!)

In the morning I contacted the Toronto Wildlife Centre to see if I could manage to see one there. We went for a visit, but the animals are kept away from the public so all we saw (through one way mirror windows) were a few cages of squirrels and pigeons.

Hmmm ..

So in the evening I went out with my cheapy camera (the fancy camera couldn't cope with the low light level) and hung around dustbins in various back alleys - oh, the glamour!

Eventually I came across a little chap just backing down from a tree onto a fence top - and later I came across this gorgeous boy, rustling around in a wheelie bin!

I've been a bit cheaty - his eyes were totally whited out by the flash - but I think my basic Photoshopping has kinda worked :)

I was completely shooting blind - and got so close to him I thought I might manage an iPhone snap - but he dashed off before I could manage.