Printed in Canada.
Legal Deposit—First Quarter
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2023930327
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Raccoon : a wondertale / Sean Kane ;
afterword by Margaret Atwood.
Names: Kane, Sean, 1943- author.
Atwood, Margaret, 1939- writer of afterword.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20230140092 Canadiana (ebook) 20230140149 ISBN 9781771837828 (softcover)
ISBN 9781771837835 (EPUB)
Classification: LCC PS8571.A433 R33 2023 DDC C813/.54—dc23
For Graeme
ACT I
Home Schooling
Slypaws, a patient mother and single parent
Clutch, her senior son, a traditionalist
Bandit, her junior son, an aspiring alpha male
Touchwit, her precocious daughter, an artist
Uncle Wily (deceased), brother of Slypaws and Pawsense
Aunt Pawsense, Slypaws’s socially superior sister
Goodpaws, her head daughter and bossypants
Sensibella, second daughter, a romantic heroine
Friskywits, younger daughter and a clever subversive
Nimbletoes, the junior daughter and family messenger
Smartwhisker, father of the four sisters and Pawsense’s mate
Meatbreath, father of Slypaws’s three cubs, a deadbeat dad
I
The creatures living behind the wall of my study are in a quandary. As I sit at this desk, they are three feet away, at ear level, in a disused chimney. At the suggestion of milder weather, the whole family of them wakes up, and breaks immediately into hissing and snarls. Only one kind of animal is so full of anxiety and quarrel.
I put the stethoscope to the wall. The instrument is left over from my partner’s professional life. For no reason I can explain, it gives me the power to understand the speech of raccoons.
“Eeeuuw!”
“Ssh. Mustn’t wake up.”
“Eeeyowp!”
“Alright, what’s the problem?”
“It’s Clutch. He’s having another nightmare.”
“Clutch, honey. Remember what I said. Just tell it to Scat.”
“SCAT! SCAT!”
“Shove over. Your tail is in my face. I need to scratch.”
“It’s no good, Mom. It won’t go away. It’s about Uncle Wily. He’s staring up at me from the road.”
“Just think of something nice instead. Clams with honey sauce.”
“Uncle Wily went splat instead of scat.”
