Thursday, January 18, 2007

Raccoon’s And Family Heirlooms

I will spend a lot of time over the coming winter months trapping and relocating nuisance animals, such as raccoons, opossum, skunks, rats, mice and, coyotes from property in the Farmington/Farmington Hills and surrounding areas. I wrote the following to emphasize that reasonable precautions and a simple maintenance chore this winter would help in dealing with and living with wildlife in our city and surrounding areas.

Several weeks ago, my son, Erik and I were out fairly early in the morning checking our traps. It was a light day of trapping with several raccoons, two Skunks and an opossum neatly stored in the bed of my pickup truck. We had several hours before our next appointment so we stopped at a coffee shop for donuts-then headed for home. As we pulled into our driveway around 7:00am, I noticed my wife standing in her robe waiting for us.

Kathy had been trying to get in touch with us for the last 45 minutes; unfortunately I had left my cell phone at home. After she let me know, in not so many words, how she had been woken up prematurely, she informed us of an emergency call that needed our attention. With an apology, the address, my cell phone, and our highly trained golden retriever Anna, we left for the emergency.

Kathy had been sleeping when the phone rang at 6:15 am. The woman on the other end seemed very distraught and wanted assistance quickly. She explained that a very large raccoon had entered their home and was knocking things off of her cabinets. Kathy did her best to calm her down a told her that someone would be there within the hour.

The home was easy to find since there was an elderly couple joyously flagging us down and directing us into their driveway. I told Erik to leave Anna in the truck until we needed her. We walked through front door armed with five-foot catchpoles. Catch poles are basically pipes with a cable noose on one end used to humanely and safely capture large animals.

A quick scan of the room revealed multiple piles of broken glass and pottery. The homeowners explained that the raccoon had successfully destroyed 15 antique cookie jars that had been in their family for several generations. When we ventured deeper into the home we noticed, on top of a curio cabinet, a very large raccoon and it was not happy. I told Erik to go back to the truck and be ready with a transport cage.

I approached the animal and slowly placed the noose of my catchpole over the head and neck. With a quick tug I had what felt like a 35-pound raccoon securely harnessed. It jumped about and flailed desperately trying to wedge itself behind the cabinet. The fight was futile for the raccoon and soon it gave up the struggle and submitted to my will-it was clearly under control. I dragged the raccoon outside to the open cage Erik had prepared and 30 seconds later we had it securely stowed with the other animals captured during the morning.

Afterwards it was determined that the raccoon had crawled down the fireplace chimney sometime during the night and calmly walked out the fireplace opening into their living room. Fortunately the homeowners were home and not on vacation--the raccoon could have done significant damage to their property.

This situation could have been avoided with one simple product - a chimney flue screen cap. Flue caps are covers that allow smoke to exit a chimney while preventing wildlife from gaining access to the home. They can be purchased from any hardware or home supply warehouse and most are reasonable in price. The advice that we give out most often is to secure all of your Chimney flues with covers. This is a simple maintenance task that can save you a potential headache. Unfortunately, in this case the loss of priceless family heirlooms and the heartache associated with their destruction should have never happened.

No comments: