Rocky the Raccoon
We have had some interesting run-ins with the wildlife in our neighborhood lately. Let us tell you about a couple of pesky raccoons that commandeered our trash can, as well as our next door neighbor’s can.
First off, Celestie spotted a rather large raccoon in the middle of the day as she was leaving to run some errands with the kids. She watched it pop its head in and out a few times and then it finally took off running up a tree.
The second encounter was about a week later and pretty funny from my perspective. Celestie had just walked out to the backyard to tend to the garden and some of the flowers. Again, it’s late afternoon, complete daylight and very unusual to see a raccoon in our neighborhood. I just happened to be in the kitchen and out the window saw her walking a bag of trash over to the can. No big deal, right? Well, not 10 seconds later, I see her running the opposite direction back towards the back deck. She comes in quickly and said, “I think something is in our trash can. It just growled at me”. I went out to investigate and confirmed we had a raccoon stuck in the garbage can. I wasn’t sure what to do, so we decided to throw the lid open and try to scare it out. From a good safe distance, I tried throwing various objects into the can: used tennis balls, small rocks, sticks, anything to get it to move out. Nothing worked. Celestie called our neighbor Mike and he offered to help us load the trash can into his truck and drive the poor guy somewhere in Powhatan. We agreed and I drove out with Mike to a nice wooded area. As we were tipping the can over, the raccoon slid out and took a quick look at me and then a look at Mike. The raccoon must have decided it liked Mike more, because it started after him and I just watched in shock as this small animal chased Mike down the dirt road a fairly good distance. Finally the raccoon took a hard right into the woods and I picked up some rocks to throw in after it as a way to convince it to stay in there. We had a good laugh on the way back to the house.
The last encounter unfortunately ended with a dead raccoon after my neighbor decided to shoot him with a pellet gun. We were not sure how many there were and we wanted to ensure that Celestie or the kids didn’t have another unwanted run-in with one. Here are some pictures of the mama raccoon.
First off, Celestie spotted a rather large raccoon in the middle of the day as she was leaving to run some errands with the kids. She watched it pop its head in and out a few times and then it finally took off running up a tree.
The second encounter was about a week later and pretty funny from my perspective. Celestie had just walked out to the backyard to tend to the garden and some of the flowers. Again, it’s late afternoon, complete daylight and very unusual to see a raccoon in our neighborhood. I just happened to be in the kitchen and out the window saw her walking a bag of trash over to the can. No big deal, right? Well, not 10 seconds later, I see her running the opposite direction back towards the back deck. She comes in quickly and said, “I think something is in our trash can. It just growled at me”. I went out to investigate and confirmed we had a raccoon stuck in the garbage can. I wasn’t sure what to do, so we decided to throw the lid open and try to scare it out. From a good safe distance, I tried throwing various objects into the can: used tennis balls, small rocks, sticks, anything to get it to move out. Nothing worked. Celestie called our neighbor Mike and he offered to help us load the trash can into his truck and drive the poor guy somewhere in Powhatan. We agreed and I drove out with Mike to a nice wooded area. As we were tipping the can over, the raccoon slid out and took a quick look at me and then a look at Mike. The raccoon must have decided it liked Mike more, because it started after him and I just watched in shock as this small animal chased Mike down the dirt road a fairly good distance. Finally the raccoon took a hard right into the woods and I picked up some rocks to throw in after it as a way to convince it to stay in there. We had a good laugh on the way back to the house.
The last encounter unfortunately ended with a dead raccoon after my neighbor decided to shoot him with a pellet gun. We were not sure how many there were and we wanted to ensure that Celestie or the kids didn’t have another unwanted run-in with one. Here are some pictures of the mama raccoon.
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