It's trying to be Spring.

Bright mornings now, lots of sun in general and some days the temperature briefly rises above freezing.

The animals are getting lively. The white blob through the window is the moon, the cat is howling at it. All that junk around the cat playhouse is displaced from the bedroom which was being painted, except the shutters, of course, they await inspiration on the part of the flower painter.

The Spring creature has returned to raid the birdbox. I've never seen the front of this nocturnal animal but am told that it has big eyes with kinda white rings around them.

That thing sticking up from the deck rail is the tail of the fleeing creature, it's too fat for a rat.

Down at the barn we have another sign of Spring, a raccoon. This is a secret stash of stolen eggs amid the hay. I loath raccoons. I'm torn between wanting to shoot this one and wanting to trap it and release it in the city where they're a protected species.