Don't get a raccoon mad....

I was reading last night and heard a noise on the back porch.... when I looked out the window, a huge raccoon was eating the cat food that I had left out there for the orange/white stray.  I opened the kitchen door and the raccoon moved away from the dish and sat by the porch railing, just watching me.  He clearly saw me take away the dish of Meow Mix, and by the look on his scrunched-up face, I knew he wasn't exactly happy about that.

This morning when I opened the door to let Gatsby outside, I saw the total mess that the raccoon left for me to clean up.  That blasted animal re-arranged two of the chairs on the porch, he pulled the cloth off of the table inbetween the chairs, and then he not only turned over the water bowl out there, but he must have tossed the bowl to the back corner of the porch.  And then, as if that wasn't enough, he pooped all over the porch right near the back door.

So the first thing I had to do this morning was clean up raccoon poop.  Give me a blessed country break.  Easy enough to put the chairs back where I had them, and fix the tablecloth, and re-fill the water bowl for the cats. However, the poop-mess was indeed one extraordinary mess.

The worst part...... as I was hosing down and cleaning that porch, I saw tufts of orange and white fur.... and I'm hoping that the blasted raccoon didn't hurt the orange/white stray cat.  I haven't seen that cat today, and I even walked around the property and looked all over the barn.... no sign of him, and I hope he's not hurt and off in the woods somewhere because of that stupid raccoon.

When I let Gatsby out the door this morning, his nose went right up into the air and he was sniffing around the back porch. He clearly knew that something wasn't right out there, and he wanted to come back into the house.  I'm hoping that he was just smelling the raccoon odor, and not the smell of an injured stray cat.  My guess is that if the raccoon and the stray cat were fighting out there during the night, both Gatsby and Sweet Pea were probably watching from the TV room windows.

It's been a warm and sunny day here.... and the porch is clean and dry now, and I'm hoping that I see the orange/white stray later on tonight and not that huge raccoon.  I'm not going to leave a dish of Meow Mix out there at night anymore..... it's just too much of an invitation to the local wildlife.