(long but worth the read)
OH NO, this is a true dejavu story all over again. Years ago when I live with my parents we had a raccoon problem. My father heard about the drowning method and the same thing happend. The trap was longer than the trash can. Only this is where my story gets worse...but hilarious. This first attempt was one of the smaller ones caught, climbs up the side of the cage out of the water and screaming like mad. I'm sure the neighbors thought we were beating the red headed stepchild in the back yard or something...water gets drained. My father proceeds to make some sort of "gate" to stop the raccoon from getting to the back 1/3 of the cage (aka keeping him under water) this gate consisted of 1/2" steel bars (2 of them) soooo, dunk attempt #2....gurgle gurgle gurgle.....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh (breath from the raccoon) this little trooper somehow bent the 1/2 bars and broke out of the water. now that's determination for saving one's own life (I would have let him go after that for being such a trooper) Anyhow, I figured there was a more humane way to kill the beast and recommended a "gopher bomb" to my pops and gas the little guy. So we set up the trash can, cage in, I lite the bomb, blow out flame, throw in can, attach lid, 20 seconds later after a few coughs, WHALA! Done deal. (This is where the story gets REAL funny) The next day my dad catches another one, this time he decides to take on the task himself. Trap w/ coon in can, lights bomb, throws in can, shuts lid. Within seconds the PLASTIC garbage can bursts into flames!!!!! (he never blew out the flame on the smoke bomb) So now we have this plastic garbage can w/ 3-4 foot flames sitting on the WOODEN deck that's connected to the house. He runs to the side of the house to turn on the hose hoping to extinguish the flames, only to find out that he's turned the water off for that spicket. NOW he has to run all the way downstairs to turn it back on...BOY I WISH I HAD A VIDEO CAMERA RUNNING! To end this masterpiece of a novel, everything ended up well, the house nor the deck caught on fire. And we ended up eating BBQ'd raccoon for supper that night (ok, not really)
Since this ordeal he has 9 raccoons under his belt. I bought him a Coon Skin Cap for fathers day that year.
