There was a scritchy sound coming from the back deck. Angus told Beau to open the window and let SuzeeQ inside. Beau reached around behind him and raised the window just in time to see, not a sweet kitty, but the flash of a striped raccoon tail as it jumped from the deck to a nearby tree.

Now, that wouldn't be any big deal if it weren't for the fact that our just, almost, full-grown chickens are just, almost, to the egg laying stage of their lives.

Oh, we've had raccoon problems before! We finally gave up with chickens a couple of years before as the raccoons slowly picked off our flock one by one. Yes, raccoons are ominvores and cruel ones at that. They are crafty creatures and work at night which makes them tough criminals. Every now and then I'd hear that chicken-scream in the middle of the night. Didn't know chickens could scream? It isn't a pleasant sound to be awakened to...kind of a cross between a screech and a scream and a shocked one-last-cluck-for-life.

So we borrowed Lou's live trap this time. She has had similar problems protecting her chickens and has an awful story regarding a little kitten she had in her screened-in porch. Did you know raccoons can tear right through screening? They think that kittens are very tasty treats.

Anyway, Lou hates raccoons with a vengeance. So she bought a live-trap after the kitten vs. raccoon incident. She, like us lives on the edge of a woods. Her woods happens to connect to the woods of our local State Park so she has all kinds of wild life, mostly which is wonderful.

So...she loaned Angus her live-trap. It sat in our livingroom for a couple of days while the male members of the family checked it out and discussed their plan and figured out how the thing worked. Lou gave us some tips, for she has had success and failures with it. Did I mention how smart raccoons are? She said that she had the best luck using a hotdog for bait and that it must be tied securely at the back of the cage because those dang raccoons have a long reach and seem to know exactly where that triggering device is. She had one fellow that, with much jiggling of the cage, actually got the hotdog without triggering it. The guess is that he rolled the cage upside down so that the step-on trigger was above his head!

Angus decided that a peanut butter cracker would do since he had no hotdog handy. He put it out on the deck for two nights with no takers. I suggested that perhap the raccoon investigated the other night and finding no food but only humans frightening him away and being a smart animal, was not about to return. Maybe we shouldn't try to entice him back.

Unfortunately, by now he was in hunter-mode and faced the challenge. He tried again, this time setting the trap in the middle of the path at the edge of the woods. Now... keep in mind that Angus works nights so who do you think has to deal with a caged animal in the morning? That would be me. I mentioned this but he didn't seem too worried about it. I also queried him what he expected me to do with it, if caught....or a worse scenario, if it caught a SKUNK? The great white hunter had no ideas about that but, never-the-less set the trap out closer to the chicken coop.

I forgot all about it as I readied myself for work in the morning and said good-bye to Beau as he headed for school. Into the kitchen I went for one last cup of coffee before I headed out and rememberd the trap. I glanced out the kitchen window and there inside the cage was a possum pacing slowly back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. He'd had his peanut butter breakfast and was ready leave.

I called Angus and told him that I wanted to let the little guy loose but I hadn't messed with the trap and needed advice on it before I let him escape. Angus didn't want me to set him free since possums are not chicken friends either but since I seemed determined he told me to wear gloves since possums can be mean. Of course I could only find one stiff old leather glove but set out to my job.

I could not figure out how to open that dang thing as the creature hissed and cowered! By now I was late for work. What to do? If I left it there our dog would surely harrass it all day and that seemed just plain cruel. I went in, found an old Indian blanket and threw it over the cage and headed out for work.

Later that afternoon Angus and Beau relocated Mr. Possum several miles away into a nice woods down the road. They had no difficulty. Mr. Raccoon is still at large.