The other evening, Timothy Ellis was working on his computer at home in Washington state when he noticed something on one of his security cameras outside.
Sure enough, the camera had picked up the movement of a masked figure sneaking through Ellis’ yard — but it was hardly frightening.
In fact, it was quite the opposite.
The visitor, of course, was a raccoon. They’re fairly common around Ellis’ place. But while Ellis looked on via the camera, this one began exhibiting some unusual behavior.
“[He] started pawing at the sky,” Ellis told The Dodo. “When I realized he was actually chasing snowflakes, my main thought was that I definitely needed to save this video, because I knew other people would enjoy seeing it. It’s definitely not something you see every day.”
It seems that the falling snow had filled the raccoon with adorable wonder:
Interestingly, at that moment, Ellis and the raccoon had something in common — they’d both put what they had been doing on hold, stopping to appreciate the beauty of nature playing out before them.
And in the end, that made an impression on Ellis.
“It’s easy to get used to ‘city animals’ that we see a lot, and basically tune them out as background noise,” he said. “It’s fun to catch a moment like this, and remember that even wild animals can have fun and show some personality.”