Another Raccoon!

I will have to admit that I am getting pretty good at this raccoon trapping business. On my first attempt, as you may have read earlier, I caught a kind of albino raccoon (see above). You can read about it here. Heady from this early success, I reset the trap a couple of nights ago only to be disappointed. Something–I suppose it could have been a raccoon or a hungry neighborhood child–got into the trap and ate all the bait. It was a nice piece of chicken. I almost ate it myself.

So, once again I set out my Havahart © trap with a fresh leg of roast chicken from Harmon's in it. And, lo and behold, I caught another one. This one was again not quite what I had been expecting. The coloring was a bit off. It was all black and white, but at least it didn't have a strong odor to it, as I have been warned some varieties of raccoon have. No, it looked somewhat like the first one, but with different coloring (see below).

So, the racoons continue to wreak havoc in Utah, particularly in my back yard where they ate 3 lbs of birdseed out of one feeder in just one night. The Deseret News even had a story on how destructive they are.  And KSL ran a story on them as well. This is no laughing matter, I tell you. Well, I've put the trap out again tonight. If I catch another cat, I'm thinking of switching to Costco roast chicken instead of Harmons.

My First Racoon!

As some of you may know, I have had my share of troubles with raccoons over the years. I mean there was the time one tore a hole in my roof and decided to have a family in our attic. Then there are the many, many years of lost grapes, peaches, tomatoes, corn, birdseed, etc. My yard is like an open buffet for the critters. Well, I have finally had it! A couple of weeks ago I stood looking out my bedroom window while one of them laughed at me as it downed handfuls of seed out of the bird feeder. So, I ordered a trap. Yes, I know you are going to think me cruel and inhumane to be catching those cute little fuzzy things. But to me they are "enemy no. 1."

After ordering the trap...which is an awesome looking device  (see below) that could probably even catch the odd child that still dares to cross through my backyard...yes, well, after ordering the trap, I went to the internet and watched several videos on how best to snag a raccoon. It seemed pretty straightforward. Put the bait in the trap and wait overnight. In the morning go out and you'll have your first raccoon.

 I was so excited to get up this morning and check the trap. From the kitchen window I could see that the trap was sprung, so there was a good chance I had one. Quickly putting on my shoes, I marched up to the row of trees along the back of the yard where I had put the trap. Sure enough, I had a raccoon! The only problem was that his coloring was a bit different than the pictures I had seen. I think it must have been part albino or something because it was a kind of light yellow color. But it sure hissed at me as I approached. After realizing that this was perhaps a rare type of raccoon, and not the one I had seen eating my bird seed, I released it back to the wild. I was lucky it did not scratch me to pieces as it took off. So, I'll go back and give it another try, but just so you can see that I am not lying to you about this, I have provided a picture of the vicious creature below.