For us, residents of the CIS, it is common to see pigeons, sparrows, dogs, or at most rats on the street. And even then, you have to look for them. Encountering a squirrel or a deer is an incredible stroke of luck. And our beloved bears are only found in zoos and circuses. It won't go well for anyone who meets this beautiful animal in the forest, even if you have an ushanka hat, a balalaika, and vodka - you're in for a rough time!

In America, however, many wild animals coexist with people, and their diversity is striking. Here you can meet all the characters from the children's cartoon "Over the Hedge": skunks, turtles, crazy squirrels, and raccoons. Oh yes, meeting a bear is also possible. I didn't have that luck, but my friends were luckier.

In my story, I won't 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 just right! Luck accompanied us at every step.

Black cat.

I got up in the morning and headed to work past my favorite overgrown front garden, where you could find wildflowers of all different colors: orange, purple, red. And most importantly, this place remotely reminded me of home, as if you had ended up in your grandmother's garden, but here you could meet a rabbit or a butterfly the size of a palm. As always, having lingered by the front garden, I ran to work, and nothing foreshadowed an interesting encounter.

Opening the store, I started hanging up clothes, and customers slowly began to trickle in. Suddenly, one of the visitors tugged at me and pointed to a black cat in the store. I love animals and never miss an opportunity to pet them. Approaching closer, I thought: "Hmm... a strange cat, too timid, 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 this miracle ran out into the street. Strange, animals are treated with great respect here, why did it run away? I turned around and saw that the customers were backing away with shocked faces. This puzzled me a little, but I didn't attach any importance to it.

The small animal ran into the neighboring store. Peter, the guy working there, shouted with round eyes: "SKUNK!" - and also ran out into the street. This fluffy creature, in fright, rushed to 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 saleswoman said to us strictly. She thought it was our pet.

• What does leash mean, who is a skunk? - spun in my head.

The animal, having sniffed the shelves, runs out of the store towards the park.

So it's time to figure out what kind of creature this is. SKUNK?

Finally, I go online:

• SKUNK?! No, that can't be!

It turned out that this little creature could spoil the air for several miles, and all the things from our stores would just have to be thrown into the trash. I can only call it a miracle that everything ended so well.

An unusual family.

A week later, an equally interesting encounter awaited me. 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 were told about coyotes, and the recent situation with the skunk makes one more cautious. The noise continues, but it's empty around. I illuminate the area nearby with a flashlight, but I don't see anything.

I raise my eyes to the roof - and I am already being watched. A raccoon is looking at me from it, it is not scared, my presence does not bother it at all, but it makes me a little nervous. But the noise was not outside, but in the house. I still don't see the source of the crashing and watch the raccoon from the porch steps. Out of nowhere, another raccoon hangs from the door (it was made of iron mesh). And not even a hint of fear in its eyes, no. They are acting like it's their house, not mine.

Well, that's it, it's time for me to go inside. I wait for the raccoon to climb down, open the door, and let it out into the street. It finally gets scared and runs into the forest, and behind it three more small cubs that had been hiding under the stairs the whole time. Then I realize that it was a whole family.

So this family lived with us all summer, robbed our bins, scattered trash, and tried to steal our cat.

Yes, yes, even our fighting cat suffered from these bandits.

Cat, named cat.

I would like to end my story about animals with my favorite Kitty-cat, whom our American landlady began to call Koshka.

Although Koshka was domesticated, her character was clearly wild, which was evidenced by her torn ear. She was constantly disappearing on the street, in any weather, but sometimes she came to us for affection. Most of all, our kitty recognized Yana - my neighbor, and constantly tried to sleep on her pillow. And yet, this did not stop us all from loving her, and I hope she felt no less strong reciprocal feelings.

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

To our great relief, Koshka no longer brought us gifts, but simply delighted us with her presence.

So, throughout the summer, I learned to live in harmony with wild animals. On our journey, we met deer, horseshoe crabs, squirrels, and birds of prey of incredible size more than once.

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