Joppette Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Last night we had an interesting night with raccoons! Since I couldn't sleep after the first encounter, I wrote a short story about it and sent it to my husband to make him laugh this morning. Here it is: The Raccoon on the Deck She crept to bed and plumped her pillows just right, making sure that she didn’t wake the sleeping man beside her. Within minutes she drifted off to sleep with Jay Leno playing quietly in the background. Her body hadn’t reached the deep cycle of sleep yet, when she heard it. Oh no! The weird bark that Gibson does when he has a wild animal cornered. Again. And the pretty little Labra doodle with her lacy yellow bows and delicately trimmed toes clawed manically at the post of the deck like she could rip them down all by herself. And on the deck above? The dreaded raccoon!!!! This time he was laying on the floor of the deck. Possibly he was too terrified to move? It was his third nocturnal visit in the past week! The last two times he was seen here, he was insolently chowing on the bird feed, with his back legs on the deck ledge and his front legs inside of the bird feeders. Even when they flipped on the incredibly bright security lights, he stood there having his way with the sun flower seeds. Perhaps this time he knew his fate was at hand? In nothing more than a T-shirt, jockey shorts and shoes, the man dashed down the stairs and into the lower garage. Dragging the two dogs into the garage he shouted his plan up to her. “The dogs are locked in the garage now! I want you to make a lot of noise and scare the animal off the deck so I can shoot him!” he yelled. Eyes wide with terror, she went to the windows and tried to scare him off with loud banging and shouts of “get out of here you raccoon you!” to which he didn’t respond. With legs trembling, she opened the glass door to the deck and closed it with loud slams over and over until the animal looked like he was going to jump! But he did not. As she kept up the commotion, he decided to weigh his options by looking over the deck, and that was his fatal mistake. The man took aim and shot him right between the eyes. One of the spindles of the deck also took a shot, but it had to be done in the moment of danger. The man came running upstairs with the gun, ready to finish him off if he needed to. He assured her that the creature was dead, but she was not convinced because he was taking big heaving breaths. The woman screamed that she couldn’t watch it die. Then she begged the man to get a shovel and pick him up with that and heave him over the deck rail. With shovel in hand, cautiously, he went out and poked at that thing, and feeling confident it died, jammed the shovel underneath him and catapulted him over the railing. It was over. He went to the yard and dragged the beast into the woods, and then let the dogs back in the house. He locked the dog door and said enough was enough for tonight and went back to bed and promptly fell immediately back to sleep. She stayed up shaking at the devastating death she witnessed. Her plans for getting up early the next morning were dashed as she realized that sleep would not come her way for a long time. ********************************************** This morning, another critter was there again. Seems we have been invaded. So the bird feeders are going to come down for a while which makes me sad. But we don't know what else to do other than have shooting matches each evening! So what am I thankful for????? A sense of humor. Where would we be in this life if we couldn't just laugh at situations like this???? LOL This is posted relatively late, but I hope maybe some others can find a moment to be thankful too! And I'm thankful to Sue for posting her post that is poignant and so real for so many of us. Judy in MI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curlysue50 Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Judy: It must be the year of the racoon! We have some that have been emptying our hummingbird feeder. I thought it was leaking until I saw the grubby coon prints, sticky all over the feeder. They were also digging up newly planted azaleas in my front yard. I love animals but when they start destroying things in my yard that are important to me, something has to go. And it had to be the coons. I feel for you Judy! Susan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laban Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Judy MI, I love your short stories. Keep it up. Any visitors last night? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandyW Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 dealing with one very hungry one myself and 2 bird feeders!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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