A Thief in the Night

 I enjoy wild animals as long as they stay where they belong…away from me.  This little guy, and his/her siblings, have been making a mess of our little patch.  We discovered that something was getting into our closed dog food containers.  When we arrived home from fireworks on the 4th we found 4 raccoons feasting in our trashcans in our garage.  Now one might think closing the garage door would be the obvious fix.  That, my friends, is not an option at this point as we do not have a garage door.  We should within the month, but for now we have to get rid of these destructive rodents.  I agree he looks like a helpless pet that belongs in Over The Hedge, but if you could see what he/she is capable of you too would be ready to be rid of it.

Joe took on 3 of the raccoons with a hoe while the rest of us remained in the truck shouting out instructions as we saw them peek out behind the freezer, stove, or trashcans.  All of the kids were feeling sorry for the large rodent while Harrison was saying, “Just chop his tail off.”  We did not manage to catch any that evening, nor did we the following evening as we returned to fight them off with a couple of garden hoes.  We finally wisened up and borrowed the neighbors live trap and we awakened this morning to this.  It turned out to be a success as you can see, although I know we have at least 3 more to go.