Well, it was about a year ago when I got the call about a man with raccoons under his deck, it was nothing I hadn’t dealt with before in fact it was common, but the client was not.  He was a big ol’ southern man, and let me tell you he was a big ol’ wimp!  I work with Allstate Animal Control and so it was really one of them who called me about the case.  Since I didn’t have anything more to do, I scheduled a time to come out a few days later with his wife.  Pulling up to the house the first thing I noticed was a big ‘BEWARE OF DOG’ sign hanging on the fence to the backyard.  I couldn’t help but shudder, I’d been attacked by a client’s dog on one of my first jobs and I’ve been wary of them ever since.

Grabbing my bag with my flashlight and other various tools I got out of my van and made my way to the front door.  I knocked and hesitantly waited for the inevitable barking from their dog, but surprisingly none came.  With a small breath of relief I waited for an answer, but instead of a welcome face I got a rough “who is it” and, after introducing myself, what sounded like twenty locks being undone.  The man that opened the door was just as odd as he sounds, about six feet tall with a beard the boys from Duck Dynasty would have been jealous of, this guy was not who I was picturing.  As he led me to the backyard we were joined by his wife, I quietly asked her if they had put the dog away, her answer surprised me.  “Oh we don’t really have a dog, my husband’s afraid of them.”

I brushed all of this off, did my inspection, came back the next day with traps, and again the next week to pick up two raccoons.  As I pulled out the cage from under the deck I was met by the usual hissing and spitting from the coon, but it was coupled with an unexpected scream from the husband!  I turned to watch him run and cower behind some deck furniture, laughing silently to myself I went to retrieve the other trap, this one was closer to the man than the last.  As I pulled it out I got an even weirder response, another scream, the pounding of running feet, and the smash of a grown man passing out and falling on the ground.  I was a little bewildered but the wife told me not to worry and thanked me for my help (I wanted to ask if her wife would be okay but I didn’t know how she’d take it).  Needless to say that was my favorite job with raccoons under a deck by far.