Raccoons

Many of you know of the raccoon problem at my in-laws, but some of you don't. There are raccoons in the attic where we live. Above our bedroom is a loft that has a hole in it with access to the attic. Tyrone told me not to worry about the raccoons because they won't venture out into other people's territory. Yeah, right. We can hear the raccoons in the rafters at night, but it never seemed to be a problem. One morning last week I heard someone walking in our room. It was early morning so I just figured it was one of my girls coming in to get me. They didn't say anything so I assumed they layed on the floor and fell asleep. A minute later I heard a growling. I laid there and tried to figure out if it was coming from our room or the ceiling. I then heard it again and woke Tyrone to ask him where he thought it was coming from. He looked on his side of the bed and discovered it was a racoon. We were able to chase it out of the house. We didn't think much of it because Boo Boo (a friendly raccoon) had been missing so we thought it was him. Last Friday, we had a raccoon come in the apartment 4 times. Finally, on the fourth we caught him and called my brother-in-law to come get him (Boo Boo likes their family). That was even okay as long as the hole would get fixed. Well, the whole thing ends with what happened last night. Kayla woke up and yelled "Daddy, I need you " "Daddy!" I of course let him go get her. And of course a few minutes later Brennen starts crying for his nightly feeding. I go in and feed him and a few minutes later Tyrone comes in and tells me that there is a raccoon in our room. I finished feeding Brennen and then went in the girls room to help comfort Kayla because she was still awake (from hearing the raccoons in the roof). Tyrone set up a trap to catch the raccoon and luckily it worked perfectly with not too much resistence from the raccoon. I called my sister-in-law in the morning to make sure it wasn't Boo Boo. It wasn't and she said she would be down to see if it was Ben (a friendly raccoon gone wild). It wasn't! It was one of the wild raccoons!!! I was so greatful that we caught it and no one was hurt in the process. We called animal control and couldn't wait for them to come get it. When animal control got here, he tried to get the raccoon out of the cage (that we had spent at least an hour making sure it was secure), but decided that he would let it go because it was too difficult for him! I was in shock! He had been trying to get it with his pole leash for a while and the raccoon was ticked! I was totally paranoid and had visions of the raccoon coming back for revenge! I shut the door to our bedroom (so if one came out at least they would be trapped) and vowed never to step in there again until that hole was boarded up. I had to leave the house because I couldn't stand to be there and didn't feel safe at all. Tyrone came home that night and fixed the hole. We still cannot believe that after we had carefully and successfully caught a raccoon that the animal control would just let him go. We are searching for ways to be rid of this problem we inherited by moving here and cannot wait until it is resolved!!!