Sounds like a Yeti to me.

I vote Coyote. Based on your location. Coyotes do quite well in suburbs where small mamals are plentiful. They are pretty elusive unless they have babies nearby. You shouldnt really see them during the day. If you lived further south, I would have said red wolf. They are similar in size to coyote, with a snout that looks very close to what your photo has. We are lucky enough to have some here nearby (National Forest just a few miles down the road), and they are on the way to recovery. Of course we also get bear and deer. If you have bird feeders near that brush, you are likely to see more wildlife like Mr Coyote - easy pickins. The birds eat and spill seed, small mamals come to eat the seed, and house cat comes to eat small mamals. Mr Coyote is doing what comes natural. If he gets close enough to get photos - I personally would relocate the feeders (if you have them)further out and or avoid throwing food for the birds. Enjoy him from a distance but don't encourage him.

WOW that's serious. I can smell the rat nests from *here*, pesky. ugh ugh ugh...how the city refuses to do anything about that public hazard is beyond me. Maybe they're waiting for a pet to get bitten by rabid vermin?? (sarcasm). How can they ignore anything that looks like those photos? I just don't get it. I wish you fast and effective luck in your pursuing it through the channels you know of. And sable, glad to spread the word of "Rascal" -- he also wrote a book called "Raccoons are the Brightest People" which was in heavy rotation on my nightstand with the first-mentioned book. http://www.amazon.com/Raccoons-Brightest-People-Sterling-North/dp/052518788X REALLY worth reading along with "Rascal"; like the nonfiction version of it. And re starlings: we have had an ongoing battle with them as they nest *right above* our front door every year, leaving poop-trails down our walk and driveway, across the court to one particular tree they always fly to...just constantly embarrassing, as no matter how often we cleaned the walk and the door, they'd mess it up again as soon as we were done. We tried putting metal mesh to block the entrance they'd been using--they pecked right through it, even though our contractor said it had always stopped starlings before. I hated starlings until I found a book called "Arnie the Darling Starling" at Goodwill. I do agree with the criticisms of the author's care for the bird, but I will never look down my nose at starlings again (although of course I'll keep my mouth closed when I'm looking up at them : )). (actually, I'm happy that that one negative [and correct, IMO] reviewer mentioned Linda Johns, because I now search or her books every time I go to GW. ONE of these days, one of these days...) Here is a link that might be useful: O.K., they're cute too : )

The bamboo fencing looks nice when new, but outdoors it's going to weather out soon. Also, you must frame it out or it will look cheap. It's not going to be a long lasting solution. You'd get more mileage out of shade cloth, the nice looking type. It would be cheaper and easier to install, too. Since you're willing to spend some money on a solution, you might have other options in decorative outdoor fabrics. But whatever you do is not going to keep animals that can climb (both snakes and raccoons out if they want to come in. What keeps them out for the most part is that that's where they want to be unless you offer them a food source.