Raccoon returns

It's been five years since I last complained about neighborhood raccoons.  For a period back then, it had become a nightly problem -- how to let the cats leave the house without inviting non-resident cats and other small mammals (i.e., raccoons) in.  Then, the problem seemed to solve itself and go away.

One outraged raccoon was caught in a cage-trap set for an opossum that had been loitering around my roofline.  The coon barely fit into the small cage.  The pest control man came and hauled him away -- I think his plan was to release the raccoon into the wild.  When last seen, while being carried out to the truck, the raccoon was screaming imprecations at me and making obscene gestures.

Since then, a long period of peace.  Deceptive peace, it turns out.

Tuesday morning, I discovered signs in my kitchen that a raccoon had been checking things out.  There was nothing to eat -- I move the cat's food dish to my upstairs bedroom at night -- but the water dish had been drained, leaving a muddy residue in the bottom. Suspicious raccoon-shaped footprints covered my kitchen shelves.

Last night, I was awakened about 1 a.m. by growls from my cat and the sound of food being chewed rapidly.  The raccoon was in my bedroom, chowing down at high speed.  I chased him downstairs and out the door.  My cats -- who used to work themselves into a fury over such incursions -- have become more mellow in their later years, more accepting of the oddities life throws at them.  I read for a half hour to make sure all remained calm, and then turned the lights out again.  I had just drifted off when the sound of food being consumed less genteelly than is my cats' wont woke me up again. 

I sealed the cat door for the rest of the night.

The average raccoon lives only two or three years in the wild, so I doubt it was the same raccoon that was trapped earlier,  returning for vengeance.  But he seemed to know exactly where to find food waiting for him.

Unfortunately, I leave tomorrow for two weeks in England.  My cat-care person comes by only once a day.  I presumably will have to leave the cats locked inside, 24 hours a day.  I'll tell the care provider to wait a few days and then re-open the cat door and see whether the masked marauder has moved on to greener pastures.  As it were.  Or more accessible chow.