Thursday, June 19, 2014

Don’t Make Friends with the Wildlife



After the girls were in bed, Adam yelled that I needed to come look at something. Outside the living room picture window are three of the four little raccoons that live around the new house.  And Adam is tapping on the glass to amuse them.

I don’t enjoy killing animals, but a family of raccoons is not really something we can have. They will eventually need to be, unfortunately, put down.  If you have ever lived on a farm or acreage, you may be nodding your head or sighing in frustration because you’ve experienced this before. And you know how frustrating it is. If you’re really offended but live in the city and don’t actually have to deal with this level of critter issue on a regular basis (meaning lots of them every day), please don’t lecture me on wild animal ecology. You don’t even want to know what I think of mountain lions. And now I’m freaking out a little because I’m thinking about mountain lions. So thanks for that.

Most likely, Adam is the one who will have to handle the raccoons. I’m not a bad shot, when I’m not upset about having to be shooting at things. But I prefer bow and arrow, and that isn’t really practical here. Ever seen Robin Hood? Yeah, there’s no way I’m THAT good.

Which is why Adam should not be playing with the raccoons. He should not be entertaining them or encouraging them or offering a friendly smile to them. We try not to do false advertising here. And that welcoming disposition Adam has is maybe not what we should be aiming for.

There is, of course, a second option. A family down the street from us in Goehner often had several raccoons in cages in their yard during the summer. I don’t know why or what they did with them (like where the raccoons went by mid fall), but I suppose we could go that route, too. Or, hey, if any of you want some free raccoons, you come take care of it and we won’t mention it to anyone. Unless you’re wanting to sell raccoon meat. I’m pretty sure we need to warn people about that. Yikes. No raccoon jerky for me, thanks though.

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