by Sandra Lynn

Created on: July 16, 2007

"We've got raccoons!" my father hollered at me as I met him at the garden gate. "That's all we need right now" he said, bitterly. I nodded in agreement as I scanned the damage done to our vegetable garden. I volunteered to take a trip into town and pick up a couple of "humane traps" the local vet lent out for such an occasion. My father grumbled something to himself as he picked through the vegetable rows. "No! not the strawberries too!" he cried out angrily.

"Dad please! calm down or you're going to give yourself a heart attack!" I cautioned. I walked up the path towards the truck, "I'll be right back with the traps, we'll catch them don't worry!

Later, at dusk my father and I proceeded to set up the traps strategically around the garden area. These traps were made as a humane way of catching the pesky critters without harm. Once caught, we would take the animal up to the veterinarian who released them back into the wild. "Didn't we just do this last month and the month before that?" my father said, as we baited the traps. "Yes, it seems like it" I said. "They really like our veggies don't they?, I betcha they eat more from our garden than we do!" my father laughed. "Well, their crazy for this celery with peanut butter on it, this will lure them into the cage, no problem!" I said, as we set up the last trap The crickets had begun their song as the evening breeze died down, my father and I walked back up to the house, and sat on the porch awhile listening to the night sounds. It was so peaceful as we sat looking up at the night sky, the stars twinkling so far away, the moon peaking up over the trees. A perfect night for raccoons to go on a scavenger hunt, and we were prepared this time!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the raccoons we had in the traps! Three in one trap, all squished together sleeping and two more in the second trap, staring up at us, so sweet and innocent! My father looked at me sternly and said, "I know these two raccoons here". At first I thought my dad was losing it, until I looked a little more closely at the critters. "Yes, I believe you're right, aren't these two the ones we caught last month?, how can that be?" I asked. "I don't understand this", my father exclaimed "these are the two we drove up to the vets last month!" I knew my father was right because one of the raccoons had a torn left ear in the shape of a heart, the other raccoon had lost the end of its tail and had two different coloured eyes. These where the same animals we had been catching over and over again! "What the heck is going on!" my father yelled. "We are losing too much garden to these pesky critters! how and why do they keep comming back here?, I just don't get it!"

My mom, who was always up on the local news, called us up to the house. "Listen to this!" she exclaimed, as we sat down at the kitchen table. "The veterinarian has a write up on the front page, all about how she helps wild animals and such, says here she takes them in the humane traps and lets them go back into the wild." "Yes, we know all about that!" my father said, "so?". "Guess where back in the wild is?" my mom asked, and before we could answer my mom told us, "its the vets back forty, thats where the wild is!" "You have got to be kidding me!" said dad. "Nope" mom said, with a smirk, "our next door neighbor, the vet, thinks her back forty which is beside our back forty, is the WILD!"

This is a true story and to this day my father never takes any raccoons back to the vets, he drops them off way up north in the real wild.

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