raccoon therapy

This little guy is from my "quick and dirty" category of sewing. I probably spent more time drawing out possible faces than sewing him (the whole bandit-eye-thing is tricky, as it easily veers into panda bear territory) but I feel like it took a while because I spread the short sewing time over...umm...about three months. Back in the spring we had a Mama Raccoon and 5 babies spending their evenings in our backyard, and it's no understatement to say that Jay was freaked out by them. So I thought I would adorable-ize the animals by making a stuffed version for indoors. Ridiculous idea I know, but that's how it started. Or maybe I just needed a new animal to try out.

In the end, Jay is far more fond of this fellow than I am. I don't dislike him, he's just not totally my thing. Generally I make very plain softies, so this guy almost has too much going on for me. Or maybe he just feels...stumpy. I'm not sure. But I won't abandon the idea of raccoons just yet, even though the family of 6 seems to have abandoned us. Perhaps they caught sight of this guy hanging out in their garden and found another tiny house in the city to call their own.

(As an aside - I'm amazed that the raccoon looks like he's out in nature, when truthfully at every edge of this photo are pieces of the city. Our front yard is so small, but if you crop it just right, instant forest!)