a masked bandit tried to break into my house

**AmyMCGS** · 09-24-2006, 11:34 PM

The kids went to sleep early... things are nice and quiet, and I'm sitting here watching TV and relaxing for a bit. I hear this scratching sound, and assume it's one of our three cats either in the litter box or playing with something. I go back to watching TV, but a few minutes later I realize that the sound hasn't stopped, and I can't see any of our cats. I get up and walk to the back door, which I had open to let some cool evening air in. There on my back patio is the biggest raccoon I've ever seen!

He's digging at the bottom of the screen door, apparently trying to get into the house. (Maybe he likes burritos?! That's the only food I cooked this evening!) I stop my foot and tell him to "shoo"... he ignores me and keeps digging at the screen. I start wondering what I'm going to do if he manages to dig a hole and get inside, when it dawns on me that we do have a glass door and I just need to close it.

I ran and grabbed the camera, but the batteries were dead, so I didn't get a picture. Darn! That fat raccoon would have been a cute avatar.

So, anyways, I was getting ready to go to bed early, and now thanks to my night time visitor I'm wide awake again.

**PennyPinchinPam** · 09-24-2006, 11:47 PM

Glad he didn't make his way into the house. EEK!

**Early Bird** · 09-25-2006, 12:29 AM

Phew! Your header had me concerned!

**Panndy1** · 09-25-2006, 02:09 AM

Oh me too. That scared me thinking of a robber. Glad it was just a raccoon.

**autumnlynn** · 09-25-2006, 03:23 AM

Glad it was just a furry little bandit! We get those in our yard, too. My son almost picked one up once; he mistook it for a cat. It was right by our front porch. Now we're really careful. Bet those critters have sharp teeth!

**kabin63** · 09-25-2006, 06:09 AM

Those raccoons are something else aren't they? LOL Sneaky or not, sometimes just out right determined. I'm glad that's all it was. I see them crossing the road all the time, that or a big fat ground hog, take your pick. And I swear I saw a raccoon turn around and stick it's tongue out at me one time when we were trying to get it out of the neighbor's barn.

**Darlene** · 09-25-2006, 07:04 AM

Of course he liked burritoes, don't all bandits? Ole'!

**missymomof3** · 09-25-2006, 08:59 AM

I had a baby raccoon get into my house once when I let the dogs out. The dogs ran out and at the same time it ran in. I managed to get it out the front door without major incident but man it was the craziest thing!

**JustJoy** · 09-25-2006, 09:18 AM

I had a similar experience a few years ago. I was sitting in the living room watching tv when I heard noises on my patio. I got up and flipped on the outside light to find the biggest racoon I've ever seen ripping thru a bag of garbage I'd put out there earlier (learned my lesson about leaving garbage bags on the patio... lol). I started knocking on the patio door to try and shoo him away, but he just looked up at me and then continued on with his scrounging.... like he was telling me... "lady... I'm not going anywhere until I'm done here!" LOL I kept knocking for a few minutes, but he wasn't bothered at all. Needless to say I had a nice mess to clean up the next morning.

**pkellyc** · 09-25-2006, 09:40 AM

I have a raccoon that comes to my sliding glass door it just stands there checking us all out.

**Katybird** · 09-25-2006, 12:26 PM

We have quite a few that frequent our yard. We have been lucky in that they have not caused any damage, they can be a bit of a menance, tearing into bags and getting into pet foods.

Amy I am glad that your bandit was little and furry

.

**FrugalWitch** · 09-25-2006, 04:23 PM

Aren't they cute? We have a small troupe of racoons who show up twice daily when we feed the stray cats that people have pitched out (gggrrrrrr) at my house.

They can be so funny! Two of the samll ones evidently believe they are kitty-cats, since they have rubbed against my ankles in their eagerness for din-din before. I just froze and let them realize what they were doing, and when they did they hissed and jumped straight in the air!! It was so funny!

We end up feeding cats, racoons, possums, random foxes, deer, you name it, it usually comes sniffing around for a hand-out. So much construction (double-grrr) is going on within a few miles of our house that vast areas of woods are being destroyed and driving the poor homeless creatures to find a new home.

FrugalWitch

**AmyMCGS** · 09-25-2006, 05:55 PM

This raccoon on my patio was cute.... though I'm assuming now that it was probably him instead of a neighborhood dog that got into our trash last week. There's a wooded area behind our lot, so I'm sure the raccoon probably wandered out from there.

A few years ago, when we lived in the middle of the city, we somehow got a family of raccoons in our attic. They were definitely not cute... up all night scratching around, driving people and cats crazy in our house, and they very expensive to have removed.

The back-porch visitor, though, I can handle!

**Goodwin17** · 09-26-2006, 12:06 AM

There was one once that was hanging around an apartment complex we lived in. He didn't cause any trouble, but they can get into a lot. They can also make loud noises!