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October 05, 2005
And now there are two
Wow! Notice it's after 3:00 AM. I came downstairs to use the bathroom and heard what I thought was a cat fight. I flipped on all of the lights to break it up and calm things down in the neighborhood. When I went outside to look around, our chickens were really freaked out. Well, two of our chickens were. A raccoon found a weakness in the Braly Chicken Coop Fortress and got away with one of the ladies.
Maybe not exactly away -- he evidently wasn't satisfied with just one chicken and was hanging around to get some more. I found him a few feet away on the fence growling at me. I took a swing at him with Theaux's pretend fishing pole (dow rod with a tub toy tied on the end with 18 inches of string) and he only retreated a little. Now I'm wishing we had more dangerous toys for the toddler to play with. So I went to the basement and pulled out a halogen flood light. This raccoon is still growling at me.
Rocks! I go and retrieve a handful of nicely sized rocks to do battle with the growling raccoon. I give a Nolan Ryan wind-up throw at this fella...and miss. For a second my heart stops as I realize I'm now throwing rocks with a wishful Major League Baseball arm at the back of our neighbor's house. No glass breaks and I opt for control instead of speed. A few hits of the fence the raccoon is standing on gets him to retreat to the tree above the coop and more growling. Tossing rocks into the trees finally gets him to leave the area.
That just leaves a quick repair of the breach, back inside and I am not even sleepy now.
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Posted by michael at October 5, 2005 03:39 AM