The Raccoon Mystery

The raccoon saga has taken a strange turn.

The wildlife control man put a trap over the hole in the roof on Tuesday. There were agitated sounds in the evening, but the mother raccoon did not come out of the house.

The trap was tripped on Wednesday during the day, but there was no sign of any raccoon. I suspect the demolition work on the unfinished addition may have caused the house to shake, thus tripping the trap. I contacted the wildlife folks, and the trap was reset along with an additional trap early Wednesday evening. If the mom had gotten in the trap, there would have been much more damage if she managed to escape. Therefore, we assumed they were still in the house.

In the middle of Wednesday night, the raccoons made a huge ruckus. I don't know what time it was. I was so tired, I didn't listen closely and fell back asleep. I haven't heard them since. No one was in the trap yesterday or this morning.

Since that is the only way out of the house, either they found another way which the wildlife guy can't find, they're sitting out another day and being very quiet, or they have expired. Not a nice thought.

We're leaving the trap for one more day. After that, one option is to rip a hole in my bedroom floor or the kitchen ceiling. Not an easy job since the interior walls are plaster and lathe. The other option is wait for a smell, then rip a hole over where the smell is. An even less nice thought.

The wildlife control man said that this is one of those nightmare jobs that people post about on forums. It normally is a straight forward 1.5 day job. He kept on apologizing that it wasn't supposed to go this way. But it's not in his power to control what the raccoons will or will not do.

I would prefer live raccoons over dead raccoons in the house, but that's out of my control, too. However, this is not outside of God's sovereignty. I believe that if God told the raccoons to leave, they'd obey Him just like the fish was right there to swallow Jonah. So He had them come in the house for a reason. He's having them stay in the house for a reason. And they may have expired for a reason. It is a mystery to me.

I'm praying the raccoons are alive and they'll leave either of their own accord or via the trap, but God may have another way. So in the meantime, I'm praying, listening, and waiting.

(Edited November 19, 2013)