Disap-pear-ing

They're darlin', just darlin', as my aunt would have said. So cute, so innocent, as they waddle out of my neighbor's yard, through my caladiums, and into my pear tree.

That's right. It's summer, the pears are far from ripe, and the juvenile raccoons have shown up.

In the twenty years we've had these two pear trees, we have never, never, never! had a pear! Each year, as the crop ripens, we anticipate the bounty, only to come out one morning and find them all gone, the trees stripped.

We had the culprits narrowed down to squirrels or raccoons, but before this year, have never actually seen them at work. Of course, these two relative babies are but the latest in a very long raccoon line to find us. This problem is generational. But now that I know about it, I'm going to try and fix it.

Two nights ago, as I sat on my patio, movement across the yard caught my eye. A young raccoon walked out from the caladium row, grabbed a pear on the ground and sauntered back. I went to check on him, only to find there were two of them, the ground was littered with pears sans one bite (they are, after all, not ripe yet), and to see two little ring-tails scoot under the fence into the wooded area next door.

Last night, I set the trap with, alas, cat food. I should know better, because Sammy, our outdoor cat, immediately became enamored of it. So enamored that two hours later, I'd caught him in the trap. Giving new meaning to catch and release, I turned him out, hoping he had learned his lesson. An hour later, I'd caught the neighborhood homeless tom.

Now, I'd really like to do something about this fellow and his ever-expanding gene pool. But the vet is closed today, maybe Saturday, too--I don't know--and so, because I wasn't going to keep him trapped for days, he got a reprieve. Unfortunately, he's probably learned his lesson as Sammy has and I'll never get him again.

At that point, I kicked the trap closed and gave up on the raccoons babies for the night.

I will persevere, however, and find a less cat-friendly bait for tonight. Because the odd thing is, I've actually had a friend tell me he wants these raccoons for his country home. They have a place to go! Now if they'd just get in the trap, I'd take them there.