The above picture source is not my picture and is only for reference.
I didn't see it stand up, just thought that picture was so cute.
My Creature Sighting at 4 AM on 6/23/17
The night before last, I saw a creature at 4 A.M. on the east side of the San Fernando Valley here in Los Angeles.
I've lived in L.A. for 4 years now, and in that time I've seen plenty of
- possums
- raccoons
- believe it or not, there's a pack of coatimundis in West Hollywood
This was not any of those.
What Happened
When I was driving up to my house I noticed the creature sniffing around in a neighbor's yard which is a corner house with high visibility. It looked like it was eating the grass.
Bear (ha) in mind that a raccoon would be rummaging into people's trash. I've never seen a raccoon around here or had any problems with them getting into the overflowing trashcans around here.
It saw me and I saw it, and then it sat down like a bear.
Source
Or - like a red panda. Fucking cute.
I went inside and put my stuff down and grabbed my cell phone and tried to catch it on camera.
It was still there when I returned but my blasted phone was not about catching this treefoot creature on camera. So I watched it creepily crawl up the creepy old trees, eye reflecting in the night.
My cell phone's camera didnt pick it up since it was dark out, but I saw it fine in person.
I know it wasn't a coatimundi because
- it was cute (sorry but coatis with their long snoots really aren't cute and they're jerks).
- It didn't have a long skinny ring tail like the coatis do.
I know it wasn't a raccoon because
- it was 3x bigger than the biggest raccoon I've ever seen
- it retreated up into a group of 4 very big, very fat, very shaggy palm trees that have never been trimmed. GREAT hiding spot btw. Raccoons don't live in trees nor climb in that manner.
- It crawled very SLOWLY up the tree like it was trying to be slick or something.
- I don't think raccoons eat grass
It looked every bit exactly like a red panda.
It's a Resident
Fun part is, I know this creature lives here. Because my ex-roommate would always tell me "There's some big f-ckin raccoons or something outside." He'd describe them in a plural tense, so I wonder if there's even two maybe. They'd be gone by the time he told me and I went outside. Finally saw one though :)
Evidence to Support Red Panda Theory
So I thought it would have been eating the cat food I leave out for the few neighborhood cats, but I don't think it's interested in that.
After Googling, I found out what Red Panda's eat: plants.
More specifically, bamboo. Duh, just like regular pandas, of course!! Well that really clicked with me because there's a whole row of bamboo right around the corner from the trees!
Using Google maps, I measured the distance from the trees where Treefoot (possibly) lives to the row of bamboo.
500 ft.
They also eat fruit, well there's a fruit tree about 130 ft. away from Treefoot's cave that spills into my back yard.
Setting Up Surveillance
I'm gonna be using an old android phone of mine as a security camera to hopefully catch it. The software/app somehow magically turns it into an okay night vision camera.
I started last night, pointed at (actually too far above) the cat food bowl. How silly, pandas (probably) don't eat cat food...
No reports of any current missing red pandas, could be an exotic pet that got loose.
It's a fun mystery. The trees where it retreated to might be it's home, right on the corner. I'll be creeping my neighbor out trying to see the treefoot at 3 - 5 AM next few nights.
EDIT
After some feedback I suppose it's better to provide SOMETHING of what I was able to record when I saw it. Here's a gif from the horrible cell phone video I recorded of the creature:
You can only see it's eye reflecting, but you can tell it was walking across the yard towards but away from me.