Bandit raccoons cause big trouble

Once upon a time, I loved raccoons with their black bandit masks. We'd enjoyed the antics of pet raccoons. That was, however, before we became victims of their frequent raids of garden, orchard and poultry yard.

Night raids in the poultry yard on the ranch killed my lovely barred rock hens. Then the big rooster, too heavy to be carried over the high fence, lay half eaten. We put an electric fence wire around the top. That worked only until a mama 'coon tore in under the wire and returned again and again to feed her babies.

When we moved to Shasta County, we hoped we'd escaped the raccoon problem. But no. First, we lost our entire crop of strawberries. I saw the banditos through a window.

Other fruit followed.

Then, the clever little critters climbed into the chicken pen and my biddies and their "hen fruit" were gone, too.

My Toy Fox Terriers treed the raccoons, but I was afraid to shoot them. The barking disturbed the neighbors. The 'coons returned again and again until finally, very carefully, I used the .410 on them. Ares had them by the throat as they fell but, alas, the poor old dog is now too old and decrepit.

This year the raccoons were even worse. My son Jim bought a dozen barred rock pullet chicks and put them in a rabbit cage outside the back door. Our two remaining older chickens were penned in the dog kennel nearby. The blasted 'coon reached through the 1"X2" cage wire and dragged five of those pullets through the wire, killed and ate them before we woke up and went out. It then came back night after night.

We saved the remaining pullets by putting them in a small cage within the rabbit pen. The 'coon killed the old hen and grabbed the rooster through the wire, but the rooster's live was saved when Jim burst through the door.

We still have the rooster and seven pullets - but, make no bets on how long they will last as long as there are banditos around.