June 24th, 2010
Location: IL
When it comes to determination and creativity in getting what they want, few species can top the raccoon. I'm an animal lover so when I saw a raccoon playing near my home with her young, I thought it was cute.
I wasn’t prepared for the raccoon in my garage though! Hearing noise from the attached garage one evening I assumed I had closed one of the cats in the garage so opened the door and found beady little eyes in a bandit face looking back at me.
Silly me – I must have left the garage door partially open earlier in the day. It did cross my mind that raccoons are usually only active at night but there are exceptions. I left the house by the main entrance and opened the garage door from the outside.
Then I went back into the house and opened the door from kitchen to garage and shooed the raccoon out, closing the garage door after him.
Over the next two or three weeks, the raccoon was in the garage several nights a week. I looked for holes behind shelves or any other way this fellow was getting into the garage. The attraction was simple as there were bags of pet food stored there and the coon was helping himself to it. By the time I heard him he had clearly been at the food and then proceeded to climb onto shelves and tables in the garage and it was that noise that alerted me.
When I found the answer it was a real surprise. In addition to the garage door, there is an exterior door leading from the garage to the side yard. As I was getting pet food in the garage the side door began to swing open. A furry face poked inside, saw me there and quickly disappeared.
Examining the door I found the latch mechanism had become stuck and wasn’t engaging when the door was closed. The little raccoon had discovered he could push on the door and it would open. It was an old door and improperly installed so after he entered, the door closed behind him.
A new latch solved the problem of the swinging door and I sprinkled some Critter Ridder near the entrance to keep her out so she can find a new food source.