Moving Day

This morning, one week after Trapper John set out two cages in front of our house, we caught a raccoon. Cute, eh? I can't believe something so small created so much noise on our roof and in the attic. For those of you who didn't get the whole story, we heard noises on the roof Sunday (of last week) night briefly. Monday Brian boarded up a small hole where the two levels of our roof connected. Monday night there was a lot of noise including crying (at first we thought she hurt herself trying to break through his patch job), growling, running and little screeches. Arround 5 am we figured out she had had babies up in our cozy attic. So last Tuesday after we thought they left (Bri didn't see anything up in the attic) he boarded up the second hole he found (which was seen only by laying on the roof and looking underneath the next level of roofing). Soon thereafter, I heard crying while making Braeden's bed. It's very strange to hear wildlife from INSIDE your home! So after hiring a trapper, Brian had to undo the barriers he had installed (the trapper said that he's seen other raccoons cause several $1000s in roof damage when their babies were boarded up inside their nest). Over the course of several days, the trapper set out the following baits: cat food (caught a cat), peanut butter, molasses and finally had luck with Anise oil on marshmallows. The only bad news is that this raccoon was not the mother - he guessed it was maybe an auntie as the females can travel together. Apparently all that pounding we did on the ceiling became annoying enough to the tired mother (I can empathize with her, I have only one baby & I don't have to climb a tree and thru a hole in a building to feed mine or transport them) for her to move nests. So auntie will be relocated out to the forests (hope the poor mom can do without her babysitter) and we are now boarded up with tree removal in our near future. Oh, the joys of home ownership! As Trapper John was leaving, he received a call from a few neighborhoods over with a new nest in their domain.

Brian in "Bob the Builder" mode re-fixing the holes. You can't really see them here, but they are between the rooflines just to his right.

If only I had a mini coffee cup in his hand and a fleece vest over his flannel, Jonah could be a spokesbaby for Seattle and the Pacific NW.