Wake-up Surprise on 48th Wedding Anniversary

One O’clock in the morning of 12 July, 2017. Our 48th wedding anniversary is about to begin. As I snore peacefully, my wife sneaks out of bed and lets the restless dog outside. A few moments later as she is headed back to cuddle in bed, she hears a growling noise from the dog and runs back in the room and wakes me up.

Roused from my deep slumber, I jump out of bed and grab my headlamp. Back outside I can see that our Welsh terrier, Rex is making mighty 4 ft. leaps up towards the lower branches of the plum tree.  Shifting the light upward I get that great reflection that always comes when you hit “Eyes”!

Moments later I make out the shape of a giant raccoon, easily larger than our 30 lb. terrier. It opens it’s mouth and hisses at the dog showing a bunch of wicked teeth.

Now you have to understand, we live 6 miles out of town, have 5 ducks and 10 chickens, and have been having an ongoing battle with egg eating skunks and chicken/duck eating raccoons this year.  Losses total about 50 eggs and three ducks and four chickens. You can’t live trap them and haul them away because skunks shoot streams of this yellow foul smelling scent that you don’t want anywhere near you, your house, dog, or car. raccoons are so smart, once they know people, they’ll either come back 20 miles to haunt you forever, or molest some other rural home.

Why this year? I have no idea, but we’ve had to dispose of 5 raccoons already and I just locked away my .22 rifle two days ago after killing the mother skunk who has been elusively roosting under my chicken house and nabbing eggs for her litter of at least 5 kids (I don’t know what you call baby skunks). Stinkers?

Anyway, I hand Jill the light and say, “You stay here with the dog and keep the light on him while I get the rifle.”

Off I go to the shop and grab the rifle and ammunition. Minutes later I’m back and we dispose of said raccoon.

By this time, Rex has been jumping up and down for almost 5 minutes and is so winded he can’t even bark when the coon comes out of the tree.

Then it’s off to bed for some raucous SLEEP! Happy 48th Anniversary!>))

3 Comments on “Wake-up Surprise on 48th Wedding Anniversary”

1. Happy Anniversary! Bang, bang, bang… Oh, those critters. 🙂

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   • A mixed blessing when you are shooting a cute little sinker. Just don’t get downwind! Wow what a smell!

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     • Right! 🙂

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