Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Raccoons in Daylight

I've lived in this house since 1968 and only seen a couple of raccoons over the years. These houses were built around 1953 so the neighborhood has a lot of full grown trees now and maybe that's why one is hanging around my house this year.

I saw this critter for the first time yesterday taking a stroll across my back deck and then across the yard to the very back and then it climbed up a tree. It was about 6:30 P.M. and light outside so I wondered why a raccoon would be out wandering in daylight. I checked the internet and found out that, while raccoons usually don't venture out in the daytime, they will if they're looking for food to feed their young. Mrs. raccoon just took the same path in the yard a few minutes ago (daylight again) and now I'm hoping against hope that she doesn't have a nest nearby. Worse yet, that she's apartment hunting and likes the looks of my house.

I had my fill of critter squatters last summer when I had to evict squirrels from the attic and vowed I'd sell the house if they moved back in. Now it seems as though I'll have to worry about raccoons. It really is time I sold this damn house.

My immediate worry is that she might be nesting under the deck and that I might inadvertently run into her and her brood. I hear they can be terribly vicious if cornered. One of the deterrents to having raccoons choose your home for a nesting place is to play loud music because they don't like the noise so I'm going to play Johnny Reid's CD at full volume as soon as it's warm enough to leave the windows open.

One of my favorite songs in the world is "Darlin'" by Johnny Reid. I'm going to a wedding in a few weeks where we're hoping they'll have karaoke. Faye, Mary, and I plan to have a few drinks and sing it to our unsuspecting audience. Well, only the masses who don't read my blog will be unsuspecting. My readers deserve what they get.


3 comments:

Kim said...

I have a better idea, why don't you forget about Johnny Reid (?) and just sing to the raccoons yourself. I can see it now, her eyes will pop out our her dark mask and she will hurry her brood out of your yard forever and probably tell the squirrels her horrible experience too!!!!!!

patsyrose said...

Excuse me??? Isn't that sort of like the pot calling the kettle black since your singing voice is just like mine??

It's okay, though, because I know what I sound like but at this time in my life I don't care.

I have to admit you do have a good idea about how to get rid of the raccoon family.

Shelley said...

I'm thinkin' a Kim and Momma duet would clear out raccoons for 10 square miles! ;-)