Hello again,
After a long and much enjoyed break over the winter months with our kids… we finally got back at it. We had a pretty crazy April but not with photography. Yes we had a few shoots but we were being over run with wild animals. A raccoon had found its way into our shed via the gaping hole in the side of it (surprise surprise), and had taken up residence. Why not? After all it did come with some assemblance of warmth and protection from the elements. It also came with a nice cozy tent bag to sleep in. We knew the raccoon was in there, but how do we get it out? We made some phone calls and borrowed some traps. We set the traps immediately but this little lady was clever. On the flipside we learned that possums are as stupid as a stick. After catching two possums I decided to take a different approach and venture into the shed despite my fear of cornering the raccoon and getting attacked. We figured she had young in there as we saw her prancing across the backyard almost daily with food hanging from her mouth.
I finally worked up the nerve and flung open the shed doors ready to reclaim my shed. I looked in and saw our tent case open and the tent was partially unravelled. I asked Jenny if we packed it properly at the end of last summer and she assured me we had. I had found her… aha! So I slowly crept into the shed and wouldn’t you know it she came barreling towards me. I ran out the shed door (ashamedly somewhat like a schoolgirl) at lightning speed and the raccoon shot down a hole she had tore into the shed floor. Whew! Close call! Can you blame me? I hear that they are crazy when cornered and then add babies and well… I then crept back in and grabbed the metal rings on the tent with the garden tool and dragged it out the shed door and onto the lawn. Babies started dropping on the lawn like flies… 1, 2, 3… ok that’s it… just three of them.
I scooped them up one at a time and put them in the cage (trap) while I sorted out what to do. They were adorable and didn’t even have their eyes open yet. After several hours and a photoshoot (c’mon don’t be surprised) I was still wondering what to do with them and how to lure the mamma out of the shed. We called a wildlife specialist who was very helpful. She told me not to give them any milk or food but to return them to their mamma. Apparently raccoons when separated from their young can often become extremely irate and they’ll tear up everything in sight. Not so good considering she was living in our shed which has a bunch of stuff stored in it. I felt defeated in some way. I just had the victory of catching them earlier that day and now I have to give them back and return to the drawing board. At the end of the day we liked the wildlife experts plan because we certainly weren’t capable of harming or “disposing” of them.
To make a long story short, all is well and relocations took place as the traps finally worked. The bad news is a skunk moved in under the back shed shortly after the raccoon was relocated. After catching another raccoon and several failed attempts to capture the skunk we decided that trapping wasn’t for us unless a major network decides to pick us up as “Canadian Trappers”… haha
Here are a few shots of those little beauties!
Shane
