Your Backyard Is Wild Read Online Free PDF

where could she be?
    A soft whisper came from around the corner of the house. “Over here!”
    “I’ll be right back,” Benjamin said to Gabe and his father. He followed the sound to a small wooden enclosure where there were several trash cans. It looked like there were enough for Gabe’s whole building there.
    “What are you doing?” Benjamin asked his sister. It was just like her to leave the main action and focus in on some sideshow.
    “Waiting,” she said.
    “For what?”
    “Just watch,” Lucy replied. “You’ll see.”
    Benjamin sat quietly for a few moments. He looked up at the sky, but he could see only a handful of stars—even on a clear night, the bright lights of the city blocked them out. Then he heard some rustling and saw a couple of bushy tails. More squirrels, he thought. Or skunks.
    But as he kept watching, he realized it was a pair of raccoons! Their eyes shone brightly through the dark masks on their faces. They looked like a couple of bandits from the Wild West, but Benjamin knew that scientists thought the dark fur served a real purpose, such as blocking glare and enhancing the raccoons’ night vision.

    The raccoons hopped into the trash enclosure and onto the rows of cans. Then, one by one, they tried to take off the tops. Most of the tops were securely fastened . . . but one of them was not.
    The larger raccoon pried it off with its nose and tossed it aside. Then it began to rip into a trash bag with its paws! Soon somebody’s leftovers were all over the ground, and the raccoons were having a feast.
    Benjamin went back to get their dad, who walked over in the dark with Gabe.
    “I thought they ate, you know, fish,” Gabe said. “So why do they bother with people’s garbage?”
    “Raccoons are extremely clever animals,” said Mr. Baxter. “More than most mammals, they have totally adapted to life in the city. They eat fish—or crawfish, really—when they can. But they are just as happy with somebody’s leftover fish dinner! They will eat frogs or insects, too—raccoons change to fit whatever environment they’re in. It’s not good for them to eat humans’ trash, though,” he added. “It’s dangerous for them to become too domesticated and lose their wild instincts.”
    “What if that’s our trash?” Gabe said. “My mom won’t be too happy if she knows I watched this happen!”
    His words startled the raccoons, and they were gone as quickly as they’d come.
    “Let’s clean it up,” said Mr. Baxter in his normal voice. “I think it’s about time we went in anyway. Just put everything back in the cans—I’ll come out and rebag it all later. It’s the first rule of being outdoors: leave everything just as you found it.”
    Gabe nodded, taking it all in.
    But Lucy joked, “Why don’t you tell that to the raccoons?”

Chapter Six

    T wo days later, Aunt Lily and Uncle Peter decided they could stop worrying about Gabe. He had followed doctor’s orders and stayed close to home, exploring the backyard and playing games and watching movies inside. But now they thought it was safe for him to get back to showing his cousins around town.
    Benjamin was ready to get back to it, too. He and the other kids had collected plants and rocks. They had observed countless creatures in Gabe’s backyard. But there was still a big city out there that he wanted to see!
    Today they were going to visit the American Museum of Natural History. The two families crammed into Aunt Lily’s minivan—this time they were driving instead of taking the subway. Once they crossed the bridge again, Uncle Peter said, “How about we take a detour through Times Square?”
    Benjamin had seen Times Square once on TV, when his parents let him stay up late on New Year’s Eve. He remembered its dizzying bright lights, its happy crowds, and the clouds of confetti they tossed into the air at midnight. When they drove through Times Square, Benjamin couldn’t believe this was a “normal” day! The