Raccoons!

From time to time, a neighborhood cat pops up on the back porch and my very indulged indoor cats, spying the outsider from the sliding glass back door, promptly lose their minds, howling at the glass.  On Saturday night, T and I were watching Netflix when Tiger and Lucy went to the backdoor and commenced an alarm.  It wasn’t the usual howl, more of an announcing sort of meow.  We got up to scare off the cat outside but when we got to the glass, it wasn’t a cat staring in at us. 

It was a raccoon.

As we contemplated the best course of action, we realized that there was another raccoon on the back deck.

And a third, fourth, and fifth one playing in old man tree.  They weren’t full-gown, more like teenaged raccoons, and they were having a blast in the backyard.  

I’ve been known to be charmed by raccoons but this was no laughing matter.  I’ve never spied a single raccoon in the backyard, let alone five of them, and T and I jumped into action.

Well, actually T did.  She pulled on her boots and set out through the front door to scare them out of the backyard.  She brought a big stick and a rather impressive bark.  It took a few rounds, but she sent them packing.  Tomorrow, I’ll call the local animal control folks.  I’ll also call my tree guy to make sure the raccoons haven’t hollowed out a nest in the tree.

Until then, T is watching raccoon removal videos and contemplating how she’d look in a ‘coonskin cap.  As for Tiger and Lucy, they are napping, which they find to be a solid response to any number of troubling developments.