Raccoons
Last summer, we heard a horrible racket coming from behind our house, so I went out to investigate and found three or four raccoons fighting over a squirrel that had been flattened in the round by our house. They stopped fighting as soon as I turned the light on, and they bolted when I went outside. Another time I heard something out back and went to look and found one on a branch above the deck; it had stopped and laid down when I came out, looking at me as if it wasn’t doing anything wrong. There were at least two others, maybe three, on the roof. I’ve seen them a few other times, but always kind of thought they were cute, and they never seemed too troubled by me. Jump to a couple of weeks ago…
For the past couple of weeks we have been hearing raccoons on our roof at night. We didn’t think too much of it, even though they were making a lot of noise. It never lasted too long, so we let it go. Well, last week I started hearing something in the wall above the closet at the top of our stairs. Even though I haven’t seen any around lately, I thought it was a squirrel, since we’ve had problems with them in the walls. That was until I heard the chattering. It was a raccoon. After a couple of days, we heard it again, so I had Jessee go up and bang on the wall while I went outside to see if I could see anything. I got across the street, to where I could see under the peak, and told her to go for it. She started by setting off the smoke detector, which did nothing. Then she banged on the wall, and I saw a fairly big ‘coon shoot out from under the eve of the peak. But it didn’t go very far, staying very close to the hole and peering back in from time to time, but not going back in because Jessee was still banging. We figured that could only mean one thing: babies. We let the landlord know, but decided there was nothing we could really do about it, so we let it go.
Wednesday night, things changed. We could hear some pretty vicious fighting going on over the closet, and we knew it was not good. It started around 10:30pm, and we could hear it downstairs. It was incredibly violent, and did not stop for a very long time. In fact, they were still fighting at 1am, when I finally fell asleep. I think it kept going after that, too.
The next day I called the landlord on my way to my evening shift at work. I had tried to look from below to see what I could see, and it was a mess under that eve; I’m not sure if it was mud or blood, but that short piece of wall was covered. I wish I could have been home while the landlord was there, but Jessee had to tell me about it. He climbed up, very carefully, into our attic to see if he could see anything, but the space above the closet is completely enclosed, so there was no opening to see anything. Then he went up to the roof, where he found too raccoon heads. I’m not sure how young they were, but the landlord said that one of them was about three inches across, which doesn’t seem that small to me. He did not see any other body parts.
Apparently, and I didn’t know this, raccoons are fiercely territorial, and their territory encompasses about a one-mile radius. They are loners, except when mating or with young. Apparently, though, our battle was a two-on-two melee. I had no idea that they were so mean, or that they were cannibalistic. They always look so cute when I see them. I won’t think that again. Most dogs can’t even go up against a raccoon head on, which surprised me. The last couple of nights, since the fight, we have heard one on the roof looking around. I’m not sure what he’s doing, maybe looking for those heads, but I really hope he doesn’t decide that space in my wall looks like a good place to live. I also hope that there aren’t raccoon corpses in there, because the landlord would have to cut through the drywall to get to it. It’s starting to get warm here, too, so that space will start to get really hot here pretty soon, and that will really make it smell if there is something there. We had been counting on that heat to drive the one that was there out, but I guess that’s not an issue anymore. Jessee is pretty scared of those critters now, and won’t even talk about them at night. We’ve been joking, though, that the critters in the walls are getting bigger, and the next thing we know we’ll have a cougar in there, or a sasquatch in the kitchen…
For the past couple of weeks we have been hearing raccoons on our roof at night. We didn’t think too much of it, even though they were making a lot of noise. It never lasted too long, so we let it go. Well, last week I started hearing something in the wall above the closet at the top of our stairs. Even though I haven’t seen any around lately, I thought it was a squirrel, since we’ve had problems with them in the walls. That was until I heard the chattering. It was a raccoon. After a couple of days, we heard it again, so I had Jessee go up and bang on the wall while I went outside to see if I could see anything. I got across the street, to where I could see under the peak, and told her to go for it. She started by setting off the smoke detector, which did nothing. Then she banged on the wall, and I saw a fairly big ‘coon shoot out from under the eve of the peak. But it didn’t go very far, staying very close to the hole and peering back in from time to time, but not going back in because Jessee was still banging. We figured that could only mean one thing: babies. We let the landlord know, but decided there was nothing we could really do about it, so we let it go.
Wednesday night, things changed. We could hear some pretty vicious fighting going on over the closet, and we knew it was not good. It started around 10:30pm, and we could hear it downstairs. It was incredibly violent, and did not stop for a very long time. In fact, they were still fighting at 1am, when I finally fell asleep. I think it kept going after that, too.
The next day I called the landlord on my way to my evening shift at work. I had tried to look from below to see what I could see, and it was a mess under that eve; I’m not sure if it was mud or blood, but that short piece of wall was covered. I wish I could have been home while the landlord was there, but Jessee had to tell me about it. He climbed up, very carefully, into our attic to see if he could see anything, but the space above the closet is completely enclosed, so there was no opening to see anything. Then he went up to the roof, where he found too raccoon heads. I’m not sure how young they were, but the landlord said that one of them was about three inches across, which doesn’t seem that small to me. He did not see any other body parts.
Apparently, and I didn’t know this, raccoons are fiercely territorial, and their territory encompasses about a one-mile radius. They are loners, except when mating or with young. Apparently, though, our battle was a two-on-two melee. I had no idea that they were so mean, or that they were cannibalistic. They always look so cute when I see them. I won’t think that again. Most dogs can’t even go up against a raccoon head on, which surprised me. The last couple of nights, since the fight, we have heard one on the roof looking around. I’m not sure what he’s doing, maybe looking for those heads, but I really hope he doesn’t decide that space in my wall looks like a good place to live. I also hope that there aren’t raccoon corpses in there, because the landlord would have to cut through the drywall to get to it. It’s starting to get warm here, too, so that space will start to get really hot here pretty soon, and that will really make it smell if there is something there. We had been counting on that heat to drive the one that was there out, but I guess that’s not an issue anymore. Jessee is pretty scared of those critters now, and won’t even talk about them at night. We’ve been joking, though, that the critters in the walls are getting bigger, and the next thing we know we’ll have a cougar in there, or a sasquatch in the kitchen…