Lise and I were sitting and talking in the front of the house last night when we heard some noise in the kitchen. It sounded a bit louder than the cat, who comes and goes pretty much as she pleases. Of course, the cat has been acting a bit odd, so it could be her.
Lise was first to investigate. She got within view of the cat's food and noticed the first bandit - a raccoon eating and making a mess. She said "Raccoon!" and volunteered me to get it out of the room.
I didn't have any shoes on and immediately had the absurd thought that the raccoon, rather than escape, would come right at me and bite my feet. So, I decided to make loud noises from a distance and see if I could scare the bandit away.
Making some loud growls, the raccoon started to depart. So did his spouse. And another teenager. And another. And another. The final teen hoodlum was being a bit slow and gave me a look like "Dude, chill!" as he wandered out. Six of them!
We cautiously went to look at the damage. Not bad, but the cat's food was gone and her water bowl had become dark brown as if they had all washed their little hands before eating. We closed the door, then wondered where the cat might be.
We opened the other door and she came right in, obviously suspicious because of the loud growling moments before, and a look at her food made her a bit uneasy. We cleaned things up and got it all back to normal for her, explaining that her days of coming and going through an open door at night would be coming to an end.
The raccoons all looked quite happy and healthy. None acted crazed or rabid. If it were a nature show, I probably would have been saying "how cute, I want to adopt a baby raccoon." In the house, however, I mostly wanted them to get back outside.
For the record, we've been visited by a tree frog, a big spider, a chipmunk, a few mice (courtesy of the cat), and now six raccoons. And lots of friends and family.