The Raccoon

Sometimes life brings a bit of the unexpected... On Thursday night, Mattie was sitting by the back door seeming irritated. I looked out there was a dog on the stoop. Oops, no, not a dog. A very large raccoon. He looked at me, I looked at him as I called Mike and then he (the raccoon) slowly lumbered away.

This morning Mike was going into the potting shed to put something away -- he'd already been in that way several times -- when he suddenly started backing up. "What is it?" I asked from the back door. Well, it was that raccoon. Sound asleep. We called the Northborough police. They came out and looked at our new friend. Yup, he's sleeping. No frothing at the mouth. Hmmm... Let's poke him with a stick. The raccoon looked at the officer and Mike (I was standing a safe distance away), then went back to sleep. After a second round of this, the raccoon went under the barn for some peace and quiet.

Steve and Helen offered use of a Havaheart trap they have, so we went to Paxton to pick it up. When we got back home the raccoon was back out and I thought it would be fun to start taping. Below is our vlog, compressed into one video with 5 segments.



As I write this the raccoon has moved into the yard and is sleeping on our discarded Christmas wreath next to the discarded Christmas tree. Stay tuned!

p.s. For those of you who are wondering why we have not bludgeoned the creature (you know who you are and so do I), you should know that Mike and I cannot bring ourselves to that. I actually think the raccoon is kind of cute and I feel sorry for it. Even though I did call the police knowing they might shoot it...