I had something of an exciting day today. First, after some running back and forth (which hurt, a lot, due to the gout attack I am currently suffering from) I managed to capture two of three feral kittens that have been living behind  my workplace. The third, a dark haired and slightly older kitten belonging to a different mother cat managed to elude capture, for now.

Unlike the raccoon and electrical sparks pictured below, these are the actual kittens in question, who are, as of this writing, residing in our bathtub.

Kathy (the wife) doesn’t seem inclined to keep them (despite her love of kitties), so they’re probably destined for the animal shelter. This gives them a better chance at a decent life than living on the streets eating out of dumpsters.

Second while trying to locate one of the kittens I looked between the building I work in and the bank next door (which is a space about a foot and a half wide) only to find myself being looked back at by a large mother raccoon with her kits (cubs?). This had the whole office and a few customers out peering between the buildings, which no doubt had the momma raccoon wondering why all the big hairless monkeys were staring at her.

This was the first wild raccoon I have seen in this part of Southern California (after 30 some odd years of living here). I’ve seen possums, skunks, and coyotes before but despite having heard they were around I had never run across a raccoon before until today.

Finally in the afternoon while I was working on my press, I noticed that the lights flickered and went out. This was followed very shortly by a loud buzzing coming from the circuit breaker panels in the back of the shop and then a series of extremely loud bangs from outside the back of the building (right above where I had caught the kittens in the morning).

I ran outside to see one of the electrical wires that feed our shop sparking, exploding, and burning a few feet past a transformer on a telephone pole in our back parking lot. This was followed shortly by a visit from the fire dept. and the electric company guys who informed us that the power would be out for the rest of the day.

What’s next?