To see cats & rats roaming the streets of a big city at night is quite normal.
When I moved here, I was happily surprised by the amount of squirrels foraging and flying from tree to tree. I almost got used to foxes feeling quite at home in my street.
But on my way back from the giveaway shop tonight, I spotted a big fluffy tail, not red enough for a fox or a squirrel, and legs too short for a cat. Yup, bumping into a feral ferret was relatively new experience I gotta admit. And the look in its eyes were something like “wtf are you looking at”. I guess this one didn’t like life as a pet….
(Note from december: a friend of mine pointed out it was probably not a ferret, but a stone-marten. These seem to have found their ecological niche in the cracks of civilization, causing stories about poltergeists because they have found their way to the attics of the old buildings, and car problems since they love chewing the wires and tubes…)