I used to think raccoons were cute. They were the funniest part of Great Outdoors, and their little black and white faces are just adorable. Sure, sure, I'd heard that they're mean animals, dirty and sneaky. But I didn't believe it.And then, just like this guy with the squirrels, I changed my mind.
Sixteen days after she was born, we brought Annalyn home from the hospital. I was so scared – what did I know about taking care of a baby? Especially one so small and fragile? Were they certain she didn’t need the monitors and 24-hour nurses anymore?
Little did I know that would not be the scariest thing I faced that day.
After Mark went to work that night and Annalyn was safe and sound in her crib, I went to bed. And woke up to a horrible, terrifying sound – something was climbing through the walls of our house!
Well, not quite. It turns out that on the same day Annalyn came to live at our house, so did a raccoon. As my baby lay in her crib, all bundled up and supposedly safe, a sneaky and possibly vicious raccoon climbed into our attic through a hole in our siding.
The resulting drama was at times amusing and at times frustrating. And it lasted much too long for anyone’s taste. It drove me to call a company called Critter Killer or something like that, and it motivated Mark to finish repairing the siding on our porch. It also explained the hole in the bag of cat food I’d had in the garage, and then prompted me to carry a baseball bat each time I ventured into the garage for the next several nights.
I never saw the raccoon, though I heard her, off and on, for several nights. And we didn’t use any company with the words, “critter” or “killer,” in its name. We didn’t even trap her in the cage we borrowed from my father-in-law. Somehow, though, our furry upstairs neighbor realized she was not welcome and left our attic and our lives for good.
Your turn: What's the scariest - or funniest - encounter you've had with wildlife, or as my brother calls them, woodland creatures?
