I am new to this forum. I camped in my backyard last fall with no problems (loved it!), and had only a few animal experiences: a couple of times I woke up to the feel of the floor being tugged beneath my face, from an animal nibbling or pulling at the edge of the tent, and a couple of times I woke up to the feel of moles running beneath the tent floor. Nothing major.

Now it's spring, and I want to get back out in my tent, but I've developed a newfound fear of animals because I was attacked by a goose a few weeks ago while I was riding my bike, and just last week, another goose came flying at me to attack (it gave the warning hiss before charging me and then flying at me), but yelling "NO!" at it seven times made it land instead of knocking me off my bike.

Despite this "success" with the second goose run-in, I am now afraid of what other animals might do while I sleep in the tent. I've seen raccoons, deer, rabbits, squirrels, skunks, foxes, and coyotes in our backyard or area (of those, the fox is the only one I've seen while bike riding in the area, but not specifically in the back yard).

Am I safe to camp out there? It's spring. Any special concerns with animals trying to aggressively guard their young, as with the Canada geese? Are any animals going to rip into my tent? Should I be worried about neighbors having food out, or does next door not matter? I found a Slim Jim wrapper on the ground that blew in from I don't know where. I threw it away, but could things like that cause me problems if I don't catch them before bed time?

Another factor contributing to my new fear is that last year's tent was huge, and this year I'm using a smaller one so I don't destroy so much of the lawn as I did last fall. But now my feet and head are right up against the tent walls.

What about motion detector lights? Will that help scare off animals?