Making Tracks In Pitt Meadows…

One night last week, my wife and I heard some cats having a major tussle, about 2 am.

Being alarmed that my cats might be upset by the ruckus, I ran downstairs and noted with alarm that the noise was getting louder.

On the main floor, I could now hear that it was coming from the basement, so I ran down, and found our two cats throwing themselves at the basement window, at an attempt to get at a large furry thing, outside.

Having a number of neighbourhood cats that get put outside at night, I thought it was a cat, but as I knocked on the window with the palm of my hand to scare it off, for a moment it looked at me, and I thought I saw the mask of a raccoon face… but it was a split second in the dark, and I wasn’t sure.

 

The next day, I went outside to look, and while there was no evidence of any animal transgressing our property, there was a gap in the gravel underneath the deck that I was certain had not been there previously.  It didn’t look big enough to accomodate an animal as large as i had seen the previous night… but I know from past experience that a large mouse can fit through a dime size hole, and a rat can squeeze through a gap the size of a quarter… so it follows that larger rodents can pass through gaps that look too small to accommodate them.

I took a plastic watering can, emptied out the accumulated water, and placed it in front of the gap under the deck, with the thought that if there was an animal under the deck or one that wanted to get back into the burrow, they would be able to push it out of the way.

 

And, then the weatherman smiled on me, with a half inch dusting of snow.

In the overnight accumulation, I could see a set of large pawprints, definitely bigger and different than a cat’s paw, defined in the snow.

 

It circled around the yard, pausing to look at the watering can, before moseying over to far side of the yard, over the fence, and pausing only to rough up my garden gnome, before going on its way.

 

Now that I know we have a something… (presumably raccoon) …I will have to do some more research to find out what the appropriate steps are.

If it is just a wayward traveller, and passing through, then vaya con dios.

If it is living under my deck… not so much.

That’s the latest going on in the neighbourhood… more updates as I get ’em !!!