re: #133 MandyManners

Have you ever opened up your garbage can around 10:00 at night to find a raccoon staring up at you?

There’s a young adult novel about a teenage boy living in Los Angeles after his family moves from Mexico. His mom is terrified of possums, and several of them get into the trash one night when her husband is away, causing her to panic and call 911. She yells into the phone that there are tlacuaches in her backyard.

“There are Apaches in your backyard?” says the operator.

“Tlacuaches!” Mom yells. “Don’t you speak English?”

Five of LAPD’s finest show up. They’re not pleased when they’re shown the possums, but they do dump them out of the trash and shoo them out of the yard.