I had set up a humane cat trap right outside the cat flap on the second floor deck of my house. I figured that since Chai had left through this cat flap, which I am keeping closed and locked to force all my other cats to be strictly indoor cats, if she decided to return home, she would come back to this area. So the cat trap has been set for over two month with a small bowl of dry kibbles in it. I covered it up with a green tarp to disguise the trap as well as to keep the animal calm once it is trapped inside. I check it almost every day to see if anything has been caught. For two months, nothing came in. Absolutely nothing.
Then last night, I was having dinner with Tammy, one of my colleagues and friend from Pennsylvania. We normally have dinner on Wednesday nights every other week when she is in town. I got a call from my husband (John) that there is a live raccoon in the trap. It wasn't dark yet, so I think the raccoon got trapped sometime in the middle of the previous night. I did not realize there was something in the trap yesterday morning.
John said there was raccoon poop everywhere, and that the raccoon had somehow managed to pull a portion of the tarp inside the trap and shredded it. John could not get the tarp moved away so that he could open the release door to let the raccoon out. He had to cut through the tarp, use a long screw driver to keep the raccoon at bay so that it would not bite or scratch him while he opens the release gate. He finally managed to get the raccoon out. Since I was not there to witness this event, I could not take a photo to upload to my blog.
When I got home, it was a disaster on the deck. Poop everywhere! Worse than the poop is the smell of the raccoon itself. It smelled a lot like a dirty wet dog that had not been bathed for months, but a lot worse. It almost made me have a dry heave. I decided that I will let the poop dry out so that it would be easier to just sweep it up later. I will need to disinfect the trap. The smell was still lingering this morning. The raccoons are very stinky creatures. I hate them even more now...
I thought I heard Chai meow early this morning, right around dawn. I went out to the deck to see if she was out there, but there was no sign of her. I think it may have been my next-door neighbor's cat as my bedroom faces the neighbor's side yard and my windows were open last night. It was a very warm night.
