Marauding Raccoon!

The milkhouse is the small part jutting out in front. The raccoon tracks were found on the far right.

It's been a while since I posted, partly because this is such a busy time of year with Christmas preparations. However, we’ve had quite a week here on the farm! I've tried not to make it a long story...but it's quite a saga and I couldn't seem to condense it to just a few words. So my apologies for being so long-winded.....
The trouble began on Tuesday morning when 2 of our barn cats were viciously killed. My husband found the first one in the barn when he went to feed the cats very early before he left for work. He left a note for me to check on them if I had time. Luckily I wasn’t called to sub that morning so up I went, feeling horrified to think an animal had attacked one of our cats, and hoping I’d find the rest of them safe.
Several of them had been afraid to come in the barn when Ross fed them, but now they followed me inside. A head count had me breathing a sigh of relief to find most of them there, looking skittish, but alive and well. The milk left in their dishes was icy cold (I’ve felt like we’re living in the frozen tundra this week with the frigid winds and temperatures we’ve had), so I carried it to the house to heat it up, and was gone about 10 minutes. When I returned a terrible sight awaited me…another cat had been attacked! I won’t even try to describe my horror at this point! Finding no sign of the intruder after a quick check with pitchfork in hand, I herded the remaining cats into the milkhouse where they would be safe and placed the food dishes in there with them.



Alice and Pete

I then called Ross at work to pour out my tale of woe, and he suggested I call Leo, a friend of ours who is a trapper. He didn’t answer the phone so I left a message. I then thought to call our neighbor, Wesley, who is my friend Chris’s son and works 1o minutes away on the family farm. He came right over and brought his gun.
He found tracks outside the barnyard door that looked like they might belong to a possum (they can sometimes get really mean), but there was no animal to be found. The only thing to do then was close up the barn as best we could and hope the critter didn’t return.
Leo, our trapper friend arrived a little later and found more tracks in front of the barn down by the place where the manure spreader is kept. He thought it was either a raccoon or a possum. The animal had obviously come up the bank from a brushy area and gone into the barn through the large opening above the spreader after Ross had closed the barnyard door earlier, blocking that entry.
Leo and I checked the barn and then came back out to the spot where he’d seen the tracks. He looked over the bank…… and there was the culprit: a very large raccoon, half hidden under a big log!



Dinner time! Lily is the little light colored calico on the right

As we looked, it backed out and peered right at us, seemingly unafraid. Unfortunately Leo’s gun was in his truck 50 feet away so he hurried to get it. Meanwhile the raccoon and I just stared at each other while I willed it to stay put, wondering at what a beautiful, innocent-looking creature it appeared to be…fluffy and healthy….not at all as I imagined a cat murderer should look. But alas, just as Leo approached it turned and ambled under the log and off into the brush. Try as he might Leo couldn’t find it, and we failed to entice it back out into the open even with a raw hamburger. Leo set a trap that evening and we secured the cats in the milkhouse again, resting easier with the expectation that come morning the marauding coon would have met his maker and peace would be restored once more to the barn.

Dear old Grady

Early in the morning I hurried to check the trap….and to my great disappointment found it empty!
For the past two evenings we’ve repeated this procedure and still the raccoon has not been caught. We haven’t found any new tracks so maybe the animal has left the area, but the thought that it’s still out there somewhere, perhaps awaiting the opportunity of another cat meal, makes us very uncomfortable. Leo removed the trap this morning and I’m relieved to have that deadly contraption gone, even though the coon is still at large. With the snow we now have on the ground he thinks he may be able to track the coon and find its den if need be. What a blessing it is to have such good friends and neighbors as Leo and Wes, who are willing to go out of their way to help us in a time of need.
On Tuesday morning I brought Jasmine into the house and thankfully Ross has agreed to let her stay. I told him there’s no way I was going to lose that cat to a murdering raccoon! We’ve always had at least one cat in the house until a few years ago when it became convenient to leave them all in the barn so that we could travel and stay overnight with the kids without having to worry about a housecat.
She acts as though she’s always lived in the house and has made a very smooth transition. She’s a ‘talker’ and loves to cuddle. So far she seems to like Ross’s chair best for sleeping. He says he smells better than me :)
I wish I could bring all the cats in and keep them warm and safe, but of course, that’s just not feasible. I’m feeling blessed to have at least one.



Jasmine...the pampered one!

Of our 20 barn cats 17 are now accounted for. Poor sweet Alice and dear little Lily were killed, and dear old Grady is missing. If you click the link on Lily's name you can see the lovely picture that my friend Judith took of her when she visited the farm in October. Cleo and Sophie were missing but Cleo showed up last night and Sophie came into the barn this morning. What a relief it was to see them! Sophie and Toby are limping and each has bite marks on the sore foot. We’ve given them penicillin shots and Toby is feeling much better already and is eating well. Sophie was starving and feeling poorly this morning, but was acting much better and eating hungrily this afternoon. She has just had her first shot this evening and with luck, will be feeling better tomorrow morning. We hope and pray the raccoon wasn’t rabid, and so far the evidence leads us to believe it was probably just hungry.

The poor kitties have been terrorized but they seemed happy and secure in the milkhouse tonight. Let’s hope tomorrow and the days following will be better and safer for them.