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!

What Comes In The Pet Door - Part II

The Unwelcome Guests

The list of unwelcome guests is long. Mice, rats, frogs and one morning I heard Tom in the kitchen say "Honey is this real?" Charlie had plopped a dead garden snake at his feet! I went out of my way to trap them alive. You can buy humane traps at Home Depot. Once inside the trap they can't get back out until you let them out. I would take them outside let them loose and hope they didn't come back in. I did have one little guy sit at the front door for a long time hoping I would relent.

One morning I stepped on a rat that had been played with by one of my cats a little too roughly. It was still alive but paralyzed. I couldn't just toss it in the garbage or outside still alive so I got the bright idea of putting it in a ziplock bag thinking he would die quickly and painlessly by breathing it's own carbon dioxide. Made sense to me! I put it in the garage and kept checking on it. It took SIX HOURS! I called my friend and said "Do you know how long it takes for a rat to die in a ziplock bag?" She thought it was a joke and kept waiting for the punch line. I can't believe I told that story about myself.

Charlie found a frog pond one summer. (I hope it wasn't my neighbors). We had 5 or 6 frogs loose in the house. He didn't kill them just brought them in to play with. I would look down and there would be a little frog with dust bunnies all over it from hiding behind the dryer. Again shoebox to the rescue!

The last mouse took a while to catch.

He would sneak out from his hiding place (the dryer) and grab a little dry cat food and run back. He was becoming a little too fearless, not afraid of passing Tom on his food break. When Tom named him Scooter I decided it was time to bring out the big guns - Hershey Bars. I neglected to tell you that a little piece of a Hershey Bar has always lured these beasts to my traps.

We have been free of "unwelcome guests" for quite a while. Charlie is slowing down in his old age but I still keep a supply of Hershey Bars just in case. (You know one for me, one for you!)

Some find them a little too enticing! Coming in Part III - Things That Go Bump In the Night!

What Comes In The Pet Door - Part I

When Jackson figured out how to open the front door my indoor cats discovered a marvelous world beyond the walls of our home. Shortly after, we installed a pet door. This was great for their comings and goings but has also brought some unwanted guests into our house over the years.

Charlie our cat lived on his own in the gutter about 6 months before we officially adopted him. (Yes, he was coming in the pet door too ). Being on his own taught him to be quite a hunter. He was so grateful to have a warm, dry house to sleep in that he showered us with gifts. I know it's nature and a loving gesture on his part but I am a softy and don't deal with these events well. We've had just about everything imaginable dropped at our feet and some uninvited guests have come in on their own.

The Innocent Ones

Unfortunately birds and bunnies were tops on his list. I was forever trying to fix what he brought in (if it was still alive).

One morning I woke up to two baby blue jays in the living room. One very much alive and the other, well we won't go there. So what do you do with a baby blue jay? You go to Pet Co and buy a bird cage, wild bird formula, a special feeding syringe and now you are set to raise it to adulthood and set it free because you secretly know you are just like Snow White. I put the cage on the back porch and fed the little guy every few hours into the night. Early the next morning I go out, lift the cover off the cage and "Oh No" he is belly up, little legs sticking straight up in the air. It was very sad but the cage came in handy later.

In the springtime it's bunnies.

Living on the golf course brings a surplus of bunnies and many have ended up in my house. Happily I have saved quite a few (shoe boxes work well for trapping). One he brought in was just too tiny. I called the North Texas Rabbit Sanctuary but nobody answered. I'm serious there is one. The number is 972-285-0881. Sooo, off to Pet Co again for formula and feeder. Again I tried to save his little life but you know the outcome.

Jackson was at a tender age and quite in to what was going on. I decided a funeral was called for. We put him in a small gift box. I typed up the "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small" verse and placed it in the box with him. We buried him in the back yard, said a prayer and Molly and friends sang Kumbaya. It was a nice touch.

I tried.

Coming soon! Part II - The Unwelcome Guests