New Home for a Wanderer

New Home for a Wanderer

Located in a forest in the Western United States, there was a raccoon named Scruffy. He was similar to other raccoons in that he depended on the forest as both his home and source of food. He lived on a diet of fruit, nuts, insects, and the occasional fish. He was also friends with the other raccoons who lived in the forest. The raccoons whom he spoke to the most were named Claws and Hunter. During a long winter day, he came across his two friends looking for food.

“Hello Claws,” greeted Scruffy, “are you hungry, you look awfully thin.” Scruffy was surprised at how hungry his friends looked as the previous summer was a very prosperous one. “If you need food, you can take some fruit from my house.”

“Thank you for offering,” said Claws, “but I think we will be fine for now.” “There is another place where we know we can find food.” Claws and Hunter looked like they had not eaten for days.

“Are you sure,” asked Scruffy, “this has been a difficult winter.” As the three spoke, a sudden gust of wind blew across the forest, knocking the three of them into the snow. “We should return to our home soon. It looks like a blizzard is coming.”

“The place rumored to have a lot of food isn’t far away,” said Hunter, “we can hide in nearby trees when we get there.” The two then ran westward towards the edge of the forest, which surprised Scruffy as the raccoons not only knew little about that area, but were warned not to go there.

“That is strange,” said Scruffy, “I thought they told me to never go in that direction. They must be very hungry.” As Scruffy spoke to himself, the wind began to blow more fiercely as the blizzard neared the forest. “That isn’t good, I need to reach my house.” Scruffy was able to reach his house before the blizzard winds reached the zenith, blowing away huge chunks of dirt and snow. “I hope Hunter and Claws are alright. There is a cave not far from here where they can hide.”

The blizzard continued to rage for another three days, and Scruffy managed to survive by living on the food he stored including a pile of walnuts. As the days went on, Scruffy began to notice that some of the food he had stored had begun to spoil. “I can’t eat this,” said Scruffy, “this blizzard needs to end soon, because I don’t want to starve here.” The blizzard began to calm down after another day, but conditions remained dangerous for foraging. Scruffy, however, didn’t have the luxury of waiting and left his house as while the storm continued to rage.

“Come on, I don’t want to starve,” said Scruffy as he tried to forage in nearby berry bushes. He did manage to find a few berries, but it wasn’t enough and decided to venture to a nearby cave to find earthworms. “Earthworms don’t taste very good, but they are food.” Scruffy managed to reach the cave as the wind continued to make the journey treacherous and found many of his friends and neighbors there.

“Hello, Dirt and Climber,” greeted Scruffy as he ran into his friends in the cave, “are you finding any food here.” As Scruffy looked around, he saw many of his neighbors also digging for earthworms as well as other sources for food including roots.

“It would barely qualify as food,” said Dirt, “but we need to eat something, and these bugs are going to have to do.” Scruffy then joined his friends in digging for their food source and managed to find a handful of earthworms. Scruffy disliked the taste, but he was starving and managed to stave off his hunger with it.

Suddenly, Hunter and Claws appeared at the cave, much to the surprise of many of the raccoons who assumed that they had perished in the storm. “There is a source of food that will feed us for months,” said Hunter with a great deal of excitement, “it is not far from here either.”

“The other raccoons looked at them with disbelief. “Has the cold driven you mad,” asked Climber, “we told you to never go there.” “Are you trying to get us killed as well.”

Claws then presented the raccoons what they found, which was a handful of expired candy. “You need to try this,” said Claws, “it is like nothing else you have ever eaten.” The other raccoons slowly approached the candy, afraid of what it was, but they were hungry enough in the end to try it, and the taste to them was exhilarating.

“Where is the place you found this,” asked Dirt, “we need to go there.” “If there is more food like this, then it can feed us for years.” Dirt and Climber both sounded excited at the prospect of more candy.

“We can go there when the blizzard settles,” said Hunter, “it looks like it will end in about two days.” The raccoons then rested and sheltered in the cave, and as Hunter said, the storm settled down by the end of the second day. “We can now migrate to the place where we found the food. You also don’t need to carry much with you, because it is only a day’s walk away.”

As the raccoons migrated westward, they began to notice strange sounds, which they had never heard before. “That is a strange sound,” said Scruffy, “it is like the wind, but stranger.”

“You will get used to it,” said Hunter, “those sounds tend to go away during the nighttime.” “There were also many other different kinds of food that we found, including long stringy food with an interesting taste.” As the two raccoons led their friends to the dumpster where they found the candy, the raccoons couldn’t believe their noses.

“We could live here,” said Claws has he dug his pas into days-old barbecue, “I definitely could, because the food here tastes amazing.” As the other raccoons dug through the dumpster, they began to eat more food than they thought they ever could. Scruffy was enjoying an old salad, but he remained more cautious.

“Didn’t the elders say to avoid this place because of feral beasts that roam these lands,” asked Scruffy, “I am hungry, but I don’t want to end up as someone else’s dinner.

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” said Claws, “we saw a group of dogs being lead away earlier.” “We can stay here as long as we need to and then return to the forest once we have enough food.”

As the group continued to eat, their excitement and joy suddenly turned to grief as when they turned around, they saw the forest, their home, become bulldozed by human developers. They could see entire trees that they could home demolished, and they knew from then on, they were homeless.

Scruffy stared in disbelief for several minutes before finally regaining his senses. “Why are we going to live,” asked Scruffy as he sounded depressed.

“I know a nearby cave where we can live,” said Claws, “we should pack up as much food as we can, and then move there.” The raccoons then gathered as many supplies as they could carry and then quickly moved to the cave. “I know it isn’t as comfortable as the old trees, but this cave can porrect us for the time being. Scruffy are you alright?

Scruffy was laying on his back as a deep sadness gripped him, knowing that he could never go home. The tree he once called home was going, and the river and caves he once knew were probably demolished as well. “Everything I once knew is now gone, said Scruffy sadly, “and they will never come back.”

“Don’t be like that,” said Hunter, “we have food, and we will never go through a winter hungry again.” Hunter then handed Scruffy a chocolate he found in the dumpster. Scruffy, however, wasn’t interested. “Alright, we can talk about this later. Right now, we all need to rest.” The raccoons then slept in the cave, which at least protected them from the cold weather.

As the other raccoons slept, Scruffy got up to explore the city. He managed to get a glimpse of it while the raccoons were at the dumpster and was able to see that many buildings and lights of land that, in his wildest dreams, could never have thought could exist. As he left the cave, he quickly ate the candy that Hunter gave him.

As Scruffy walked around the dumpster, he heard a group of dogs walking nearby, and hid in a pile of garbage, hoping that the smell of the garbage would hide his. As the dogs walked around, they began to talk, but because they spoke a different language, Scruffy was unable to understand what they were saying. After about an hour of uncomfortable hiding, the dogs finally went away, and Scruffy was able to leave the dumpster through a nearby gate.

The metropolis awed Scruffy as he walked about. Claws had earlier told him to stay in the shadows as the two-legged ones would become hostile if they saw him. As he walked around, he could smell plenty of garbage laying around, including a white and brown food that he had never seen before. It reminded him of moss but tasted completely different.

Claws had told him that the strange noises wouldn’t be present during the nighttime, but as Scruffy walked closer to the center of the city, he began to hear more of them. They were uncomfortable sounds that caused him to run deeper into nearby shadows.

As Scruffy sat on a weird silver rock that easily fell down, he thought to himself about his knew home. “So, this is my new home now,” said Scruffy to himself, “I will always miss my old home, but this place will have to be my new home.” “I will hide in these strange rocks and continue to find food in the smelly piles. I will continue to live in the shadows because my home is gone. It was taken from me.”