What Comes In The Pet Door - Part III

Things That Go Bump In The Night!

Night visitors have included some good cats and one really mean wild tom cat. He looked very similar to the one in the picture below except he was fatter. I knew I had to trap him and have him taken away or somebody was going to get hurt, including me! I was able to trap him in the garage and held him hostage until animal control could pick him up the next day. He shredded the pet door trying to get in the house that night.

Other night visitors were much more clever. Raccoons!

Note: I used the pictures below to illustrate my story. These are not the ones that were coming in my house. I'm not that camera ready.

I had no idea raccoons were fond of cat food or that they would have the audacity to come into my house. One summer fresh peaches I had put in a bowl on the counter lured them in and the mess they made was awful. Bits and pieces of peaches, juice and coffee grounds that they pulled out of the sink were all over the place. It was not an easy clean up.

Raccoon paws are like hands. They can open drawers, cupboards and love to tear things up. About a year after the peach orgy, I had another visit. I found a Hershey bar wrapper on the kitchen floor and remembered I had put one in the bottom of my purse. My purse was on the counter and all of its contents still inside but the Hershey bar. A racoon had actually reached all the way down in my purse and pulled that candy bar out without disturbing anything else. Tom refers to my purse as the black hole, especially when he is looking for the check book, so believe me this was quite a feat.

A few nights later something woke me up. I thought I saw Charlie in the doorway of our bathroom. I said "Charlie what are you doing?" (Yes I talk to my cats.) It took off running and I chased it down the hallway into the kitchen. Turning the light on I saw a very large fluffed up raccoon which hurried out the pet door.

The next morning I picked up a trap from animal control, placed it in the garage and baited it with a Hershey bar, you knew I was going to say that! That evening I caught a racoon. It was picked up by animal control the next day. I still had the cage because I had to personally return it to get my deposit back. When I went to put it in my car I found a candy bar wrapper by the pet door. One more raccoon to go. Fortunately I was able to trap it the same way.

The moral of the story is: If you have Hershey Bars in the house, eat them before the raccoons do.

Seriously!