Hey! What WAS That!!?!

A very good friend of ours, Jules, lives up on the Northcoast of California - in Humboldt County, and they live out in farm and ranch country (unlike our suburbia home). Although, like us, they have a few kitties in their household and a wonderful rescued Golden Retriever (I think that's his breed) named Moose. Among the various cats in the household are Tosca and Grace. These are the characters of Jules' story. Oh, there is one more character, but s/he remains nameless. You'll see why in just a moment.

Jules relates her story like this:

I had awoken around 1:30am, not sure why, but got up and got a drink of water and trundled back to bed. I hadn't seen Tosca in the house earlier in the evening, so I left the cat door open and locked up all the cat food like I usually do. I was able to fall asleep right away, which doesn't always happen. So around 2:20, when I was suddenly awake because of a scuffle, I was kind of ticked. My first thought was "***damn TOSCA AND GRACE!!!" because they get into it sometimes. I heard all this commotion, then I felt a cat run over me and up my pillow into the window sill.

Or so I thought.

THEN I heard a lot, and I mean a LOT of clawing and scratching, so I got up and turned on the light. I was quite surprised to see Moose standing right next to my side of the bed, wagging his tail and looking quite alert. He's usually dead asleep, even when the cats fight. So I turned around to see what he was looking at and there, peering at me from the TOP of the curtain rod, was a RACCOON.

Now, Moose was REALLY interested, staring intently at the 'coon, which stared intently back (I suspect the scrambling OVER MY HEAD was due to being chased by Moose). Even at 2:20am, my brain immediately announced "Moose was trained to kill raccoons by his former owner." That's all I needed - a raccoon bloodbath in our bedroom.

So the first order of business was to get the dog *out* of the room. Oh, he was not happy about that, but I so did not care. Then I looked around to see if any cats were trapped in the room with me. Well, no, they had all run off when the 'coon ran through the house, I guess.

So now it was me and the raccoon, who by now was desperately trying to get as far away from me as it could. It was a smaller one, thankfully, not a baby, but a juvenile. A full grown adult raccoon is nothing to tangle with. Still. As I stared at her/him, s/he tried to crawl across the pictures hanging on our walls, but couldn't quite get a grip. S/he had knocked down the valence and curtain rod that it hung
on, so I grabbed that and kind of herded it back towards the windowsill. That's when it started growling at me.

Greeeaaaaaaaaat.

I walked over towards the window and watched carefully, while the 'coon tried to shimmy away. I opened the window up ALL the way (we have no screen on this window, thank the GODDESS), then tried to herd the 'coon towards the open window.

More growling.

Then s/he swung upside down and shimmied across the curtain rod that was still hanging, like some sort of rappeling bandit. S/he finally realized the window was open and the last thing I saw was the tail disappearing over the side, rather abruptly, since it is a two story drop to the ground. Then it was time to open the bedroom door, and Moose was in there like a shot, sniffing around, wondering where his great toy had gone off to.

I went down to the laundry room and locked the cat door up tight, I didn't CARE if any of the cats were outside.

So the new rule is: cats in by 8pm, or they're locked out for the night. As it rains more, and gets colder, this won't be an issue, but I'll tell you, there is no WAY I'm leaving it open anymore! I still can't figure out exactly what happened, but something obviously scared the raccoon badly by our cat door, because there was, um, raccoon poop all over the rug, the wall, etc. I have to wonder if Moose didn't happen upon the 'coon, though he usually does not get up and wander at night, so I'm still not sure. And why it chose to go to the *opposite* end of the house (literally as far away from the cat door as you could get in our house) is also quite beyond me.

And I'm sure I don't have to tell you how delighted I was to realize it was the 'coon that scrambled over my person and head (though it missed my head itself, which is a good thing - those suckers have SHARP claws), and not a cat. I hope this is the last time I have to worry about a raccoon running into our bedroom though. Rats in the attic are bad enough, I just can't tell you how shocked I was to turn on the light and see that little masked face staring back at me.