Coons

We have been battling with raccoons lately. They have won some and so have we...

We started setting some traps for the raccoons after they started to go after our chickens in the coop and eating all the cat food in the cat dish.

The other night my father-in-law Duane burst into the house to tell me there was a raccoon in the chicken coop. I had one of those, huh which weapon should I get moments, when my wife said "Take the hand gun, it is already loaded". Usually, my wife wouldn't be so forward about getting a gun out, but she raised this chickens. I grabbed the hang gun from the safe, which was loaded with hollow-point bullets for any intruders, and ran out there. Duane had startled the raccoon so it was up in the rafters above the chickens. Thankfully none of the chickens had been eaten yet. I practically shot off the raccoon's head when I shot it with the .40 hollow-point. Of course it fell down right on-top of the chickens, who frantically went running in all directions. Between all the splattered blood and feathers it looked like a voodoo ceremony just took place. One of those poor chickens wouldn't leave the corner of the coop, trembling and traumatised. I tried reassuring her, but she was going to have to sleep it off. Since this happened, we have been locking up the chickens earlier.

Here is a picture of me trying to get the dogs more interested in doing this dirty work, so I can get some sleep in the night.

The other encounter happened the following night when I heard noise on the back deck. I looked out and saw our cat in the trap finishing off a can of tuna, the raccoon bait. I let the stupid cat out and went back to bed. About a hour later I wake up to more noise on the deck. I look out and there is a raccoon eating the cat food right outside the door. I banged on the door and it looked at me like he didn't care I was there. I opened the door and he ran off, but I knew he would be back. I wasn't about the startle the whole family by shooting it in the middle of the night, so I went with plan B, Louisville Slugger. With the cat food just outside the door, I opened the sliding back door just enough to fit the bat out. I raised the bat like a hammer and waited. Within 5 minutes that raccoon came back up the deck to the cat food dish. I swung that bat straight down like I was trying to win the strong man competition at the fair, and knocked that raccoon right on the head. As soon as I hit the raccoon it flew in the air and went jumping and flopping all over the deck. I was laughing so hard because the idea worked so well, that I forgot to go out and finish the fight since I had only stunned it. The raccoon ran off and I went back to bed laughing myself back to sleep. I know one thing about raccoons, and that is, they will be back.