On the road to pacifism...

Well, we did it - we finally caught our chicken eating Raccoon. That dirty little weasel! We set out a trap with two donuts in it and just before bed went out to check it. And voila - one chicken eating raccoon waiting for us.

When I saw him I bent over said, "I hate you!" I think I heard Mike say that if he had a gun he'd shoot it. Wow - some serious anger towards this thing!

We weren't sure what exactly what we were going to do with it but figured the next day we'd drive it out of town and dump it somewhere. So we left the little guy out there for the night...The next day while Mike was at work I got lots of one on one time with the raccoon and started to feel "interested" in it - so I gave it some bread and checked on it every once in a while. Uh-oh - this can't be good. I also started reading articles on the internet on dealing with raccoons. Everything I read said that relocating an animal like a raccoon would probably kill it and that some other raccoon would quickly fill it's spot in your backyard. What? That's stupid. What's the point of that? So, I hemmed and hawed all day until I finally came to this conclusion...
We just let it go. In our own backyard. Mike was a little reluctant and totally couldn't believe we were releasing this thing right back into our yard but there didn't seem to be much point in doing anything else. I figure I'll just do my job of securing my little hens and that is all I can do for now...it's just a rental house anyways.Of course when the raccoon fell out my camera wouldn't work and he tore off so quickly I didn't get a picture of him.

p.s. Don't you just love the picture with the chickens in it too? A little ironic...I know they thought we were crazy as they sat there and watched us release this monster!