Soothing Raccoon Trauma

Yesterday when I talked to a friend, I told him I planned on coming over but I was going to sleep in, and he agreed.

So, when I got an early morning call from him, the first thing out of my mouth was, 'What part of sleeping in did you not understand?'

Mind you, I only reacted that grumpy because he has a bizarre tendency to call me repeatedly on those rare mornings when he's up early.

Then the following words changed the whole day: 'We're trapped in the bedroom, huddling and yearning to pee.'

Yeah, it brought up visions of 'give me your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to pee'. Of course. So what could cause two grown men and five animals (including two very large dogs) to be hiding in one room? Well, apparently throughout the night my friend had heard sounds like the cats knocking things over. They were acting weird and running around as a team. He figured it was full moon or something and they were just acting like cats rather than the usual diurnal creatures they are (having been trained to go against their feline natures in that respect). After getting up and chastising them several times, he finally fell to sleep around five, only to be awakened by the Rottweiler's deep woofing.

Now you have to understand, she doesn't normally bark. If anything, she might give a woof or two whilst playing. This was sustained barking. The type that translates into: 'There's a thing! I found a thing! Let me show you the thing!'

Barely awake, my friend sent his boyfriend to check it out; there must be something wrong if she's barking after all. A moment or two later the boyfriend returned with the following proclamation:

'Honey, I'm confused. We have another animal in the house and I don't think it's (drag cat who hisses at everyone).'

That got his attention. So he bounds out of bed and goes out, and there is a huge RACCOON treed up on a chest by the Rottweiler, hissing. The raccoon was easily larger than half the size of the other big dog, a collie/shepherd mix (who, incidentally, slept through the whole thing).

Knowing that cornered raccoons can be vicious, and that they can carry rabies, he then corralled all the animals, the boyfriend, and the phone into the bedroom and called animal control, which apparently doesn't handle raccoons, so they suggested a commercial critter control company. Then he called me as they waited for the return call.

My first inclination was to go over and help do some sort of raccoon drive out of the house (mind you, I was sleepy and not thinking well, and I'm not afraid of most animals) and then thought back to my last encounter with a wild animal (which resulted in a squirrell bite) and decided that the plan for critter control was better, and wished them well. Then I went back to sleep.

Later I went over and checked on them. The guys from critter control had captured the raccoon, a pregnant female, with a loop on a stick and were going to take her outside the city and release her. She'd apparently gotten in from outside into a crawl space above their apartment and dropped down. It had turned cold last night and I think she just wanted to find a nice nest for her little ones. Can't really blame her, really--silly humans, building a city on top of her range. The critter control guys actually asked if they wanted to keep a baby, to which my friend replied, 'what, raise it and send it to college???' I think they just wanted the raccoon to go somewhere not their apartment.

She was mightedly thwarted by two things: the fact that everything from the dog food to the bread box was sealed in containers she couldn't open, even with thumbs (although she tried) and a big woofing dog. She'd knocked things around in the bath, kitchen, and closet and either used the bathroom in the tub or taken treats from the cat box and put them in there. At one point the boyfriend accidentally let two of the animals out and my friend went and got them, then stayed out on the couch waiting for the control people.

The whole house was traumatised by this. The cats, with a 'we tried to tell you something was wrong' stayed huddled in a high window together the whole day. The dogs kept looking for it. My friend kept trying to get a hold of his landlord to explain what had happened and to hopefully get the passageway sealed. He was so tired he fell asleep on my shoulder for a couple of hours, so I just watched TV and provided a calming presence (well, except for pointing out they could easily have had a snake--the boyfriend is phobic on that one). Before I left, my friend actually hugged me (not usual behaviour) and thanked me for helping soothe raccoon trauma.

Well, it was an exciting Saturday, anyway, although thankfully it didn't actually happen to me. I have no doubt what havoc a raccoon could wreak on my kitchen, where both the trash and the animal food are unsealed in cabinets, which would be no trouble for an enterprising raccoon to tackle. :)