Finn, our middle furbaby and self-proclaimed guardian of the yard, is quite pleased with himself this morning. As J. took the dogs out last night for the last time before bedtime, they all took off like a shot as soon as they hit the threshold. Much barking, arfing, and gnashing of teeth ensued.
The reason? The tree in our backyard ....
Look really hard and you'll see the ringed tail.
*cue the Count from Sesame Street*
That's ah-one! One raccoon in the tree....ha ha ha!
Two! Two raccoons in the tree... ha ha ha!
Three! Three raccoons in the tree... ha ha ha!
Believe it or not, there were a total of four of these young raccoons that had ran up the tree when they heard the dogs bark. Tiny little 20 pound dogs that were smaller them. They looked to be young coons - maybe 1 year old or so. They weren't too happy with us shining lights at them or milling around the tree. And, believe it or not, another raccoon tried to run from behind our neighbor's house and up the tree.
I normally like raccoons, but not with the hen house less than 100 feet away. Even though there's a chainlink fence protecting the coop and run, there's a space on the top of the door that is open and could allow a raccoon to squeeze through there. We've been leaving the coop door open, so if a raccoon could get into the run, they could go through the pop door and have chicken dinner. We'll be closing that door from now on and will be patching in some chain link above that door tonight.
This post has been brought to you by the number 5.
Good little guard doggies :) Yes, raccoons can do a real number on your chicken population. So can skunks and possums. We have lost 21 chickens in the last 2 weeks to a possum. I didn't feel too bad when I saw one dead on the road yesterday morning.
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't have any problems with those rascals!
Good for the dogs! I'm a'skeered of raccoons... I've seen what they can do!
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