Missed a ride!
One of the nice benefits about where I live is that it is so easy to get out into the country on a bicycle. We’re right on the eastern edge of town, and basically all I have to do is get across the river on one of two bridges and I’m on lightly traveled country roads.
In addition, we often see quite a bit of wildlife, often right in our yard. We’ve had skunks, opossum, turkeys, fox, deer, armadillo, and most recently, this guy:
Now, I’ve gotta admit, we thought it was pretty cute when we found him precariously hanging on my bird feeder pole. It stopped being funny, however, when he kept coming back. The longer he hung around, the more destructive he got. He’s trashed feeders, spilled food on the ground, and has made a mess of what few flowers we have surviving the heat.
I kept the gun handy for a few days hoping for a chance to dispatch him, but never got the chance. Besides, I was a little nervous about shooting him in the neighborhood, so I moved to plan B….I borrowed a trap and set it.
Yesterday morning was a planned tandem ride before work in lieu of commuting on it and Pam having to suffer through the afternoon heat, but low and behold, we caught him overnight. I thought about just leaving him until after work and then relocating him, but my conscience got the better of me. Rather than be inhumane and make him suffer in the trap through the heat of the day, we blew off the tandem ride so I could take him to his new home.
That relocation was very successful. This guy now has a new home in a big patch of woods out by Turners Station. I came home, lifted weights until time to head for work, then jumped on the Surly for the morning commute.
As I was heading out of the neighborhood, another raccoon crossed the road in front of me! Dang it, anyway!
God bless…
TW
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July 27, 2011 at 6:23 pm
It has been said that raccoons are the mammalian equivalent of cockroaches…
July 28, 2011 at 5:51 am
I have relocated squirrels and possums in like manner. One squirrel that I let go out east Cherry promptly ran across the road and got smashed by a car! Stupid squirrel.
July 28, 2011 at 9:26 pm
I’d like to know how the hell it got up that pole!