Things that go bump in the night
Last night as I was ready to nod off, I heard a loud metallic crash from our deck. I hopped out of bed and started downstairs since I thought I could catch the ‘bandit’ red-handed.
As an avid griller who uses the gas grill on the deck throughout the year (it’s not uncommon to see me cooking steaks, burgers, etc. on the deck while it’s snowing), I guess I’ve opened myself up to some interesting problems. The fact that we back up to a forest preserve teeming with a variety of wildlife doesn’t help, either.
The drip pan beneath the grill proved to be too tempting a target for a crafty young raccoon who proceeded to pull the drip pan and the whole bottom section of the grill off its track for a snack. I pulled back the curtain on the door and flicked on the outside light and started pounding on the glass. I spooked him a bit, but he only moved to the stairs, turned around and just calmly watched to see what my next move would be. From those intelligent eyes, I could sense him mocking me… “Go back to bed, boxer short boy, and let me finish my snack.”
I thought I finally drove him away with my ensuing wild native gestures, but he was back on the deck within 5 minutes. I ran back upstairs and rummaged under the sink to find some ammonia (we normally use it for cleaning, but I read on the Web someplace that raccoons aren’t to fond of the smell). I sprinkled some on the area and went back to bed.
No more bumps in the night – though I’m not looking forward to cleaning up that mess on the deck this morning.
Comments(2)
Mmm… grill runoff. We haven’t had any raccoon issues, but it’s not uncommon to find possums on our back porch. Raccoons are probably more troublesome, but possums are way uglier.
We’ve had a possum visitor as well…. a big, ugly, beady-eyed, pointy-nosed gray-white thing that decided to jump off the deck rather than take the stairs…. scary thing….