the return of an unwelcome houseguest.

what an exciting evening we've had! after eating dinner and watching an old episode of doctor who (we're avid fans!), we were finishing our last blog post when we started hear little taps and other weird noises behind us, about where the front door is. there are definitely lots of cats in the neighborhood, so we paid no attention, until we noticed it was above us. and remembered that a few months back, we had a raccoon problem in the attic...!

so we rushed outside, flashed our light up there and saw.. nothing. we had previously figured out how he was getting in: a few missing pieces of wood in the attic gables allowed enough space for a pesky little raccoon to enter. except, he's not so little because we saw him last time, right after we sealed it all up, and he had tried to enter but couldn't. he was at least 30 lbs. big raccoon. but we thought our problem was solved, and haven't heard a peep in the attic for months. until tonight. and the wire mesh we had used to block the entry still looked intact, which was awfully confusing.

james is a trooper.

we knew the raccoon was definitely back though, because he tore up our side garden, which is something he did the last time:

raccoons are jerks.

anyway, while james was still scouring the outside of the house to try and see where it was coming and going from, i went back inside the house and was able to confirm it was definitely still inside the attice. james took a ladder into the front yard, stood on it, and shined a light at the entry, while i knocked our ceiling with an umbrella to try and scare it out. and it eventually worked. james then used the ladder to get onto the roof, went to the spot the raccoon had managed to get loose and tied the lattice-work together with 10-gauge steel wire and put a cinderblock on top. fingers crossed that holds.