When I woke up this morning, the last thing I expected to find were raccoons in my yard. I guess I wasn’t expecting to lose my dogs leash either, but you know what I’m talking about.  You have certain guidelines and expectations of how that day’s events will go; and my day did NOT follow my guidelines.  I mean, it started off just as I’d pictured it.  I woke up late because I’d hit snooze on my alarm too many times, I couldn’t find anything for breakfast because I hadn’t been shopping in two weeks, and it took three tries to get my car to start because I need to buy a new battery but I keep shrugging it off.  They were the kinds of things that you knew were going to happen because of your lack of responsibility, but hoped wouldn’t.

My morning went exactly as I had hoped it wouldn’t but had expected it to anyway, so it was no surprise.  It was the evening, when I came home from work, when my day suddenly did a 180 on me.  As the sun started to set I got ready to take my dog, Mitsy, on a walk; the problem was that I couldn’t find her leash; and I know you shouldn’t walk your dog without a leash but since my morning went the way it went, I really didn’t care.  Or at least I didn’t care until I opened my back door to leave and stood face to face with a giant raccoon. As I stood there, mouth gaping wide open like an imbecile, Mitsy took off.  It took me a second to recognize that my dog had just leapt off the porch, barking like a mad-man, in hot pursuit of the raccoon and so I just stood still for a moment longer trying to process what had just happened before I, too ran down the porch after my dog.  The second my foot touched the grass, however, it was met by loud hissing.  I jumped backwards and turned to see three more raccoons in my yard! I wasted no time in running as fast as I could the opposite direction; which, luckily, was the direction I needed to go.

I followed the barking of my courageous pooch across the street into the neighbor’s yard but then lost the sound.  I stopped and listened but Mitsy was not barking anymore.  Having just lost my sense of direction I wandered aimlessly around the lawn, looking for the missing animals.  I breathed a sigh of relief as I came around to the back side of the home and found my little Mitsy sniffing and scratching at the baseboards of their wraparound deck. To make a long story short, the raccoon had wriggled its way past a loose board and was now hiding beneath the deck, and while I was relieved that the raccoon was no longer in my yard, I knew that it was only a matter of time before he came back and joined the other three.  So now I’m here, searching the internet trying to find someone that can get the raccoons out of my yard and put my day back on the path it’s supposed to take.

Early last month I discovered raccoons in my chimney.  Though I was surprised to see them, it wasn’t a shock that they were there.  I’ve seen raccoons around my yard many times in the past and I’ve been negligent about putting a chimney cap on the old brick chimney so the fact that they finally moved in is more of a wake-up call than anything else.  Of course at first I didn’t know it was raccoons, truthfully I thought that a bird had nested in the chimney because I would only hear soft peeps from the babies and the occasional clunk from the mother.

After a few weeks, though, it seemed odd to me that I was still hearing these sounds and they were only getting louder.  I had thought for sure that the baby birds would have moved out of the nest by now so I set my old, rickety ladder up against the wall and climbed up to the chimney to investigate the sounds I had been hearing.  Well, when I shined my flashlight down the chimney I can assure you that I wasn’t prepared to see two big reflecting eyes staring back up at me.  That was where the surprise came in you see.  I had thought a little bird was living there but in fact it was a raccoon in my chimney!

That’s when I started calling around for help, at my age I wasn’t going to get that big raccoon out of my chimney by myself, and I was almost positive that she had young living in there as well. I soon discovered that she did in fact have young, six of them to be exact.  Last night while I was letting my Yorkie out to the bathroom, I watched the mother raccoon jump out of the chimney and run down my tree.  I was just too curious not to go look down the chimney again to look for babies.  When I did I was greeted by lots of small growls and 12 eyes frozen under my light.  Well, now I really need help.  I’ve got someone coming to do an inspection tomorrow so hopefully they can get these little rascals out of my chimney for good.

For about a year we have been hearing raccoons in our chimney.  Of course we didn’t know it was raccoons in the chimney, if we did it would have been much easier to solve.  What actually happened was my darling 5 year-old daughter, Lydia, could hear noises coming from her closet (that backs up to the chimney).  I can’t even count how many nights she ran into my room sobbing, terrified of the monsters in her closet.  It was kind of my fault, she only connected the sounds to monsters after I let her watch Monsters Inc. Before that, she thought it was Santa’s elves making sure she was being nice.

The problem was that whenever she heard sounds, I would go into her room, check the closet, and not hear anything.  At first I played along and told her I would stand watch for the monsters until she fell asleep, but that only lasted for about a month.  After that I told her to stop playing silly games and to go back to bed, monsters didn’t exist (I know I’m a horrible mom but there are only so many hours of sleep you can lose watching for imaginary things!).  What I think is odd is that I didn’t hear the raccoons in the chimney once during that month, I didn’t hear them at all until about two weeks ago!

My encounter with the “monsters”, was much less terrifying for me than poor Lydia.  I was putting her laundry away while she was at school and my husband was at work, and I heard small chirping sounds coming from behind the wall.  I pressed my ear to it but couldn’t hear anything.  That was until I tucked Liddy in for bed that night and heard them again, this time coupled with loud scratching sounds.  When I told Glenn, my husband, he went out with a camera and threaded it down through a hole in the roof that used to be a chimney.  Sure enough there they were, five baby raccoons in the chimney.

After calling a local wildlife specialist, he confirmed what we saw.  A mother and her five kits had taken up residence in the old chimney that had been closed off for years.  He also helped us remove them from the chimney and clean up any contaminants that were left behind.  My poor baby girl, for a year she thought there were monsters in her closet and it was only raccoons in the chimney!

I know this story sounds crazy, but when I heard my husband called the police at 2 a.m. reporting a raccoon home invasion, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing either.  We have lived in Park City, Utah for about 15 years now, and I can assure you that we are very familiar with the wildlife that lives here.  I’ve seen everything from mice to moose in my backyard and raccoons are very common. We haven’t had too much trouble with them, as long as we keep our garbage can locked shut and don’t leave our dog’s food outside that is.  They mostly just scavenge for food around the neighborhood, never bothering anyone too much.  At least they didn’t until 4 nights ago.

Now I have heard some stories about people who have had raccoons get into their attics and homes and cause some serious damage, but when you hear those things you always tell yourself “it could never happen to me, right?”  I don’t know, maybe it was just me, but I considered my home animal-proof. I was so wrong. My dog Bruno ate some pork that day (thanks to my youngest son Bridger) and was having some terrible stomach problems, if you get what I’m hinting at.  Instead of risking the mess he could make while we slept, I left the cover off of the doggy door so he could move freely outside to do his business.  My other dog, Emma, is so old that she can barely see let alone hear, she is not fit for duty anymore, but I left her to watch the downstairs anyway.  Those were my first mistakes.  My second mistake was that I didn’t put away the leftovers after dinner, I never liked salmon on the second day and figured leaving it out would give me an excuse to toss it out the next morning.  Between the fish, bread, butter, and pasta left on the counter; the open entrance to my home; and my two watch dogs being out of commission I set myself up for the raccoon home invasion.

Taking advantage of the open doggy door, two raccoons snuck into my house while we slept and went rampant.  They tore into the bread, ate the leftover fish (which I’m not too upset about), broke into our pantry, tore apart the cushions on the bar stools, and last but certainly the worst, they somehow turned on the faucet.  Well after two hours of this mass destruction, Bruno finally lumbered back inside and let us know what was happening.  My husband snuck downstairs, .22 in hand, ready to face the intruders only to find raccoons! After chasing them out of the house, he called the only number he could think of, 911, and reported our raccoon home invasion.

After going through and replacing all of the water damaged laminate in our kitchen, salvaging what food we could, and replacing the rest, we found our savings being stretched and our patience growing thin.  Nobody could have prepared us for this, no one! Truthfully, I’m thankful that it wasn’t worse than it was, but I want to warn you! If you know there are raccoons in your area, doggy doors can be dangerous, especially if you have food sitting out.  You don’t want to end up like we did, the victims of a raccoon home invasion.

I’ve never had a problem with raccoons on my property, or at least until they started to be a problem, that is. I live in Colorado right near the forest and that itself warrants for a variety of wild animals to come around. I was okay with that for a long time, I mean I’ve lived here for 15 years and it’s never been an issue until now! About 6 months ago, two things happened in my life; I bought a new puppy and raccoons broke into the bird feed.
I know that raccoons are very resourceful creatures when it comes to finding food for them and their babies (and she has 3 pups), so I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. My husband was the one who actually discovered the raccoons on the property (we already knew that they lived nearby). He was leaving for work at around 4 o’clock in the morning when he caught two raccoon’s red handed and elbow deep in the bird feeder. He ushered them away, but caught their tails slinking into the bushes the next day. He’s been bothering me to call someone ever since, but after that it was about 2 more months before we had another run in with the raccoons.
Now the 3 babies are more like adults, bigger than my dog, and MUCH more active. My husband has started seeing them on an almost regular basis in the morning here and there, mostly minding their own business. We weren’t having problems with them breaking into any of the bird or dog food so we more or less let them be; until I left the lid on the dog food off. Well, not off exactly, usually we chain the top on so that the raccoons can’t get in, but I forgot. Now my husband is back on my case about calling in the Calvary so I’ve been looking around. I was recently in touch with a technician so hopefully I can get someone to relocate the raccoons off my property and somewhere far, far away.

It was right around Christmas time that we had a raccoon in our chimney, the reason I remember is because I was making a Christmas dinner for my in-laws who were coming to town the next day. I started the turkey that night before so the house had started to smell like Thanksgiving all over again, there is no better smell than turkey in the oven, and the raccoon must have agreed. I had been hearing a few strange sounds in the chimney here and there for a few days before the incident, but I was so stressed with the company that was coming that I just ignored it!
As I was getting ready for bed, I heard a metal creaking from the living room so I went to check it out, but there was nothing there so I shrugged it off and went to sleep. Later that night I woke up and heard movement and rustling downstairs, but I attributed it to the dog (that was lying next to the bed) and again went back to sleep. When I woke up in the morning I couldn’t believe what I came downstairs to find. The raccoon in the chimney had opened the damper and went full Terminator on the house! The couches were shredded and torn, there was pee in more than one spot on the carpet, and the turkey had been taken out of the oven and picked clean! I wanted to cry but instead I got to work.
It was the first time that I had my in-laws at my house for any sort of dinner, so you can see why I was so stressed out. My brain was stuck on the tangent that if my house and food weren’t perfect that they would shame our marriage (don’t we all think that way?) so I called my best friend up and put her, her husband, and my husband to work in the fastest Extreme Home Makeover ever. We replaced the torn up furniture with new couches, shampooed the pee stained carpets, closed the damper and blocked the chimney, cleaned the house top to bottom getting rid of all the evidence of a raccoon, and bought steaks for dinner all before the in-laws arrived. After they had left, we got to dealing with the raccoon in the chimney.

You’d think a six foot fence would keep a raccoon out of your chicken coop, but I guess not. I used to have a nice baker’s dozen of chickens, all raised from hatching until now right in that coop. They were safe there for a long time; until this year. All of a sudden I have the James Bond of raccoons running wild on my property. He is scaling the fence (remember its six feet tall), getting into the coop, killing a chicken, and carrying it back over the fence and dragging it off to someplace who knows where.
I know that chickens are inexpensive, and they hold no real value in a monetary stance, but this is different. I have raised these chickens since they were hatchlings and I’ve kept them fed, warm, and safe from harm and raccoons in their coop. At least they were supposed to be fed, warm, and safe but apparently that didn’t work out. Not to mention that one of the two chickens he has killed was my absolute favorite! She was 4 years old and laying better than ever, but he wasted no time killing her. Between her and the other little yearling he killed, I’m ready to strangle the darn thing!
I ordered a trap two days ago, it should be here on Monday, but I always have a backup plan. I’ll set the trap and I’ll watch for the thing with my .22 on hand, and if that doesn’t work out there are trappers waiting on hold for my call. They’re already planning on picking up whatever I catch, and are willing to come trap him for me if I have any more problems. You’d have to be stupid to think I’d stand by and watch a raccoon get in my chicken coop, kill my favorite chickens, and let them get away with it!

You know, I hear about people with raccoons in the attic all the time, but my story seems a little different. Like hundreds of other people in the country, I was hearing the sound of thumping and rustling in my attic that I could only attribute to raccoons. Unlike other raccoons though, these two HATED each other. I could hear them fighting in the attic, hissing and bumping against walls and into various objects. Not uncommon for raccoons, but a little uncommon for one’s that were sharing a living space.
The next odd thing about these raccoons, was that they despised the rain. Whenever it rained, they got louder and they fought more. Weird, right? Anyway, while my sister was letting the dog out one night, she heard the too familiar sound of hissing and a new squealing come from the wall next to the door. As she turned on the light to check on the yard, she saw a raccoon fall from the attic, onto the ground, and roll over to look her straight in the eye, luckily the screen door was closed still so she had a barrier between her and the raccoon (needless to say the dog slept inside that night).
They’ve been in the house for maybe 4 months now, but there was a month of silence where we sincerely hoped they were gone. At the end of that month, I covered the hole that I had learned they’d been using. Not too soon after that, they raccoons were in the attic again. They’d pulled down my cover and were back to their same old tricks. Well it’s been over a month since then, and I really think it’s time to get rid of them. They’ve scared my dog straight and kept me up plenty while they run around. I think it’s about time for me to call in the trappers, let someone else deal with the raccoons in the attic.

I went out to my rental house about 5 days ago to check some things out for the renters, and I found raccoons in the attic. At first I wasn’t sure if they were cats or raccoons, but after setting up a camera outside, I know its raccoons. I watched them crawl up the drain pipe on the side of the house and up to the rafters. Well, being as intelligent and cunning as I am, I sneakily slid a board in front of the hole they were using to get into the attic. Point 1 for me.
As it turns out, that was a mistake. For about 3 or 4 days after I blocked the entrance to the attic, it was silent. I was pleased with my handiwork and the tenants were happy that the problem had been seemingly taken care of. Well last night, the raccoons wanted out of the attic, and they wanted out badly. I don’t know if they ran out of food or they got impatient or even if they were going stir crazy up there, but they found a way out. Since they couldn’t get through the old way, they scratched and chewed themselves a new hole through the ceiling into the back room, which wasn’t quite big enough.
Now I have a video of a raccoon stuck in a hole, AND another raccoon very angry still in the attic. Luckily, the raccoon stuck in the hole wriggled its way out after a few hours and plopped onto the carpet and out the backdoor that we’d opened (point for the raccoon), but there’s still one more up there. The renters got so fed up with the whole situation that they moved the board that was keeping them out, but also in (another point for them)! Well now I’m not sure if there are more in the attic or if the one got out, but I do know that it’s easier to patch a hole the first time then to try and beat the raccoons in the attic.