You would not believe the day I had yesterday, first I had to fire my best Sales Lead because he was skimming on the sales profits, and then I get home to find a raccoon had killed one of my chickens, kidnapped another, and scared the others eggless.  At first I didn’t even think that it was possible they could have been taken out of the cage, considering it is completely wired off – even on top.  Not to mention my yard its self is fenced off from the neighbors and the street to keep my dogs in and, I had hoped, other predators out.

With everything happening at work, I got home fairly late, around 10 o’clock.  All I wanted to do was eat ANYTHING that wasn’t fast food (it was a long day), take a hot shower, and get some sleep.  It was around 11 when I was just getting out of the shower and I heard squawking, barking, and a whole lot of movement.  I ran outside to see a raccoon climb out of the chicken pen with a squirming hen in hand and a dead one right behind.  I was a little stunned as I watched it run across the yard and climb into one of my trees where he proceeded to kill the other chicken.  Honestly, at that point I didn’t feel like I could do anything so I just watched as he ran down the tree, up the fence, and off into the night.

I’m (mostly) at peace with what happened last night, I don’t feel like there was anything I could have done to stop it; but I’m not okay with that raccoon thinking he can come into my yard at any time for some free dinner so I need to take some more preventative steps so my chickens and dogs are safe in the future.  I’m not sure if this is something I would set out traps for?  I’m going to call a local wildlife company and get their opinion on whether or not I should try and catch the specific raccoon or if I should just redo my chicken coop for added security and get bigger dogs.  I’m kidding about the dogs, but I really do need to do something and I need to do it before that raccoon comes back.