little bandits..

 My west coast brother informed me that today is "International Coffee Day" and also "International Day of Older Persons."  Since we qualify on both counts and were out and about taking me to a doctor's appointment (something older persons do) my spouse and I celebrated with drinks from Biggby's.  My spouse had his usual large black coffee - Biggby's best, while I had a frozen chai tea latte - so good.  

My brother also informed me that today is "International Raccoon Appreciation Day."  I don't know that I've ever met an international raccoon, and appreciation may be too strong a word, but there was one fearless raccoon that I admired a little.  

It was in the summer of 2010 and I was still living in my 'country house' on one acre on Tonkel Road.  I discovered that their was a ground hog living under my deck at the point where there was only about three feet of space between the deck and the ground.  I knew it was a groundhog, because a few times I found it sunning itself on my deck.  A few other times it left little 'gifts' to let me know it had been there.  I was concerned that the groundhog might start gnawing on wrapped electrical cords that ran under the deck so I hired a man to trap her and set her loose in the woods somewhere far far away from my house.  I think he was a 'pest control specialist' but I thought of him as the trapper.

The deal was he would trap it in a "live trap" that wouldn't hurt, and then haul it away.  The first evening he set the trap with an apple as bait.  In the morning there was a very contented looking raccoon sitting in the trap, not looking very distressed at all, just ready to be let out.  The apple was gone of course.  Since raccoons didn't usually come near the house I thought it was funny and wasn't too concerned.  I let the raccoon out, the trapper came back and reset the trap for the next night.  The next morning, you guessed it, the raccoon was back in the trap.  

By the way, every time the trapper came back I owed him more money so he really didn't care if he was catching raccoons or groundhogs.  Finally, finally, after about five nights, we caught the groundhog.  The trapper assured me that he would let it go in a safe place far, far away, and I guess he did.  I never had a problem with groundhogs again.  

Frankly, by that point, I wouldn't have cared if he told me he planned to take it home and eat it.