When my daughter was about six we vacationed in a cabin in the woods of Northern Wisconsin. I was a single parent at the time so I invited some friends to join me with their two little girls. We spent the days hiking, fishing and canoeing and the nights in front of the fireplace.
One day the girls were playing outside at the edge of the woods while we prepared lunch. My friend’s girls flew through the door the minute we called but just as I turned to look for my daughter there was an ear piercing scream from outside. All three parents were out the door in seconds. My daughter was standing near the cabin crying and looking over her shoulder towards the woods. I hugged her and asked what happened. She said that there was a big black and white animal in the woods and it growled at her. We described every animal we could think of that might have been in the area from raccoons to bears to beavers. She knew what they all looked like and insisted that it wasn’t any of them. After lunch I talked to my friends and everyone agreed that it must have been a large raccoon. That night we tried to ease her fears by joking that the she probably scared the raccoon do death with that blood curdling scream. She laughed with us but as I was putting her to bed she looked at me with desperation and told me firmly that it was not a raccoon. I couldn’t help but believe her but I didn’t have a clue what she had seen.
When we stopped in a rest area on the way home there was a large map of Wisconsin on the wall with pictures of common trees, flowers and wildlife. My daughter excitedly told me to look at one of the pictures. At first I didn’t recognize what it was because I had never seen one in real life. The picture was of a badger and she confirmed that it was the animal that had growled at her. We were both relieved and wished our friends could be there to see it. I was proud of her for standing her ground even when no one seemed to believe her and I never forgot that look in her eyes asking me to stand with her.
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