For us, the residents of the CIS, it is customary to see pigeons, sparrows, dogs, at most rats on the street. And even those you have to look for. Meeting a squirrel or a deer is an incredible stroke of luck. And our beloved bears are only encountered in zoos and circuses. The one who meets this beautiful animal in the forest will be unlucky, even if you have an ushanka hat, a balalaika and vodka - you won't fare well!

In America, however, many wild animals coexist with people and their variety is striking. Here you can meet all the characters from the children's cartoon "The Forest Gang": skunks, turtles, crazy squirrels and raccoons. Oh yes, it's possible to meet a bear too. I didn't have such luck, but my friends were luckier.

In my story, I will not mention the constant, daily encounters with rabbits — there wouldn't be enough pages for that. If you see a rabbit in the morning - the day will go as it should! Luck accompanied us at every step.

Black cat.

I got up in the morning and went to work past my favorite overgrown front garden, where you could find field plants of the most diverse colors: orange, purple, red. And most importantly - the place vaguely reminded me of home, as if you'd wandered into grandma's vegetable patch, but here you could meet a rabbit or a palm-sized butterfly. As always, having lingered by the front garden, I ran to work, and nothing foreshadowed an interesting encounter.

Opening the shop, I began to hang up the things, and customers gradually started to arrive. Suddenly one of the customers grabbed my sleeve and pointed at a black cat in the shop. I love animals and don't miss the chance to pet them. Coming closer, I thought: "Hm... a strange cat, too skittish, small ears and body, a large white stripe on its back. What kind of animal is this?"

But it was so cute that I made another attempt to approach, and the little miracle ran out into the street. Strange, animals are treated here with great respect, so why did she run away? I turned and saw customers backing away with shocked faces. That puzzled me a little, but I paid it no mind.

The small animal ran into the neighboring shop. Peter - the guy who works there - with round eyes cried: "SKUNK!" - and also ran out into the street. This fluffball, frightened, dashed into another establishment, and we followed it. Our magnificent trio ended up in a jewelry store. Peter shouted again: "It's a skunk!"

• What are you doing? Put it on a leash. - the shopkeeper said to us sternly. She thought it was our creature.

• What does leash mean, who is a skunk? - ran through my head.

The animal, sniffing the shelves, ran out of the shop toward the park.

Now it was time to figure out what this creature was. SKUNK?

Finally, I go online:

• SKUNKS?! No, that can't be!

It turned out that this little creature could foul the air for several miles and all the items from our shops would have to be simply thrown in the trash. I can only call it a miracle that everything ended so well.

An unusual family.

A week later I had no less interesting an encounter. At eleven o'clock at night I approach the porch of my house. The light is on, music is playing, and suddenly I hear a rustle.

Behind, in front - "no one"

We had been told about coyotes, and the recent skunk situation made us more cautious. The noise continued, but the area was empty. I shone my flashlight around, but still saw nothing.

I raise my eyes to the roof - and someone is already watching me. A raccoon is looking at me from there; he is not frightened, my presence does not bother him at all, though it makes me a little tense. But the noise was not outside, it was in the house. I still don't see the source of the commotion and watch the raccoon from the porch steps. Out of nowhere, another raccoon is hanging from the door (it was made of iron mesh). And though there wasn't even a bit of fear in their eyes, no. They act as if it's their house, not mine.

Well, it's time for me to go in. I wait until the raccoon climbs down, open the door and let him outside. He finally gets scared and runs off into the woods, and after him three little young ones, who had been hiding under the stairs all this time. Then I realize it was a whole family.

So this family cohabited with us all summer, raiding our bins, scattering garbage and trying to carry off our cat.

Yes, even our fierce cat suffered from these robbers.

Cat, named cat.

I would like to finish my animal stories with my favorite Kitty-cat, whom our American landlady began to call Koshka.

Although Koshka was domesticated, her character was clearly wild, as evidenced by her torn ear. She constantly disappeared outside, in any weather, but sometimes she came to us for affection. Most of all our kitty favored Yana - my neighbor, and constantly tried to sleep on her pillow. And yet that didn't stop us all from loving her and I hope she felt no less strong reciprocal feelings.

Once, as a sign of her devotion, she brought us a present - a mouse, and wrapped it in a rug. I am sure this act was dictated only by the best of intentions, and in the cat's eyes it looked like a wrapped surprise.

To our great relief, Koshka no longer gave us presents and simply delighted us with her presence.

So, over the summer I learned to live in harmony with the wild critters. On our travels we often encountered deer, giant horseshoe crabs, squirrels and birds of prey of incredible size.

I hope next year I will be lucky enough to meet these animals again, or perhaps to get to know others in the forests of America.