In the Wild Right Here at Home

Last night I came downstairs to put away my cleaned strawberries. It was raining, so I stepped into the garage and set my sprinkler system to r, for rain. It was about 7: 15, plenty of daylight left. Back in the house, as I looked out my kitchen window onto the back lawn, I saw a raccoon walking toward the house. Daylight, remember. They don't come out in daylight. . . . . . Except when they do. Obviously.

I do not like raccoons. I've written about them before, because they have been in my yards before. And in the neighbors' yards and driveways and under porches and on my upstairs deck. And quite threateningly there. They scare me. Their claws are sharp. And the one on my deck let me know that if the door had not been between us, I would have been very sorry. He bared his teeth and made an ugly noise, finally turning to go and climbing down very slowly. I won't be forgetting that encounter.

So I needed to scare the raccoon in my yard last night.

It came to me in the early hours of this morning that I should have a baseball bat--or a gun. You might know it's against the law to kill a raccoon, but if I could do it, I would break that law this minute.

Anyway, I've thought the gun thing through and think I can't have a gun. Who knows what might happen if I had a gun? Still, a baseball bat would mean I'd have to get close to the animal, and they're fast. Scares me to think.

Here's what I did last night, not knowing if it would do any good. I pulled up the blind. The raccoon heard it. I lifted the window, and he stopped moving. I growled or shouted or whatever I thought to do, and he turned and ran. Of course, I looked for him all night and have looked for him all day today. I will most certainly look for him tonight, because that just seemed too easy. I yell and he goes away.

I do not know where he went. I wish it would be someplace far away, though I suspect his nest is near. But he went, and I am very glad he went. I think I'll ask at Home Depot or Zamzow's if there is something I can put down or spray that would keep the raccoons away.

Do you think that's likely?