My kosher raccoon

Once again, we have a clever raccoon invading our back yard. He's very consistent, arriving around 11 PM each evening, scarfing up the leftover cat food and forcing the water bottle off its perch with his nose. I know all this because I've captured his image on the game camera.

Obviously, it is time that Mr. Raccoon find a home in the wilderness which is where I believe God meant raccoons to live. Not my back yard.

In the past, I've had good fortune to trap them on fruit, so I started with oranges, then strawberries. The fruit would be gone--and so would the raccoon! He is a bit on the scrawny side (and unbelievably clever) and so didn't weigh enough to trip the trap. So I greased the trap some more.

After a week of this nonsense--and quite frankly I'm tired of being bested by a lightweight critter--, I pulled out all the stops and positioned a pork rib in the trap, tied top and bottom so he couldn't, as his predecessors have done, sit on top of the trap, pull the rib through, and dine.

From the photos that night, he didn't even look at the rib. The next night, I added strawberries and a fresh rib. He looked but didn't enter the trap.

What kind of raccoon is this? Does he keep kosher? Is he a vegetarian?

Last night I put all the leftover dry cat food under a box and put a plant on top of it. I should have swept it up, because the plant was dislodged, the box still downturned, and the food gone! Besides that, there was a possum in the photos! Now he's bringing friends?

But I have another plan. NO cat food out. I will sweep up what remains from the cats and they will have to wait until morning. Maybe then, he'll be tempted by… strawberries? peaches? A Brussels Sprout?