There are raccoons in my chimney – or, at least according to my chimney sweep there are.  I know it seems a little out of date – and very Marry Poppins – to have a chimney sweep, but it’s been very useful for me to have someone maintaining my chimney flus for me.  And not to mention that he’s the reason that I’ve discovered the raccoons in the first place.  It’s a yearly cleaning service, so I know for a fact they weren’t here last year!

We’ve been hearing soft scratching sounds on the side of our house for maybe a month or so, but since we have trees surrounding our house that’s what we credited for the noises.  When the chimney sweep came, he first noticed that there was some kind of animal scat littered across the roof, in quite alarming amounts.  That’s what first clued him in on the raccoons in the chimney, it was too much poop to be a one time thing so he shone a light down the flu before he got started.  I guess, two big shining eyes met him, and he went inside to the fireplace to see if he could get a peek through the damper at what was living inside.  When he cracked it open, he was greeted by soft mews from distressed babies, and the hisses and growls from the mother raccoon.

I’ve been on a work trip while all of this was happening, but he’s been doing our service for years now and I trust him greatly.  Not to mention that I’ve heard sounds on the side of the house and the roof as well before I left.  I’m sure that if I went home and checked everything he said would check out.  That being said, I need to get some help.  Not only do I need the raccoons out of my chimney, but I still need to finish having my chimney cleaned.  Anything would help!