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PlotTwistPoultry
Chirping
Silly story time:
I know we have raccoons in our area, because we're a suburban area filled with trees and raccoons basically are everywhere. That being said, in the 12 ish years we've lived here, I've maybe seen two raccoons in a block radius of our house.
Until three mornings ago.
I happened to wake up before dawn (so, like, 5am,) and randomly decided to check out the webcams I have for the flocks. Imagine my surprise when I see a mother cluckin' raccoon climbing up one of the barn's support beams on the other side of the chicken wire! I jump out of bed, toss my fluffy green robe over my pj dress, and run barefoot out into the barn. I start grabbing the scrap lumber pieces we have in a pile and throw it at the raccoon while yelling "Get outta here!" like I'm from Jersey instead of Oregon.
Then I realize it's a younger raccoon and was clearly exploring, probably looking for a place to raise a family. Because it couldn't find a way out, except for the big barn opening I was standing in. So I backed up and grabbed the pitchfork. Which is when I noticed Sasha girl (the dog in the above photo) was watching me from the steps of our deck like I was a crazy person.
This dog has never shown an interest in chasing anything unless it was a ball. She clearly picked up on my body language because when the raccoon bolted out, she did that meme of "oh he's running, oh shit we're chasing him." The raccoon ran up over the garden fence and I was like "Com'on Sasha!" and opened the garden gate. She bolted after it, with me in my fluffy green robe wielding a pitchfork over my head following. She followed it back behind the barn (which is about 2 feet from the fence line), but then ran back behind me when the raccoon did the whole fluff and hiss thing as it was cornered.
We probably looked crazy. At least I did.
However, the raccoon has clearly decided to raise a family elsewhere because there's been zero sign of it since.
My apologies to the squirrels that have lived in harmony with Sasha for the last year. Because now she chases them off if the chickens are out. To her, chickens equal friends and raccoons and mini raccoons (aka squirrels) are bad.
I know we have raccoons in our area, because we're a suburban area filled with trees and raccoons basically are everywhere. That being said, in the 12 ish years we've lived here, I've maybe seen two raccoons in a block radius of our house.
Until three mornings ago.
I happened to wake up before dawn (so, like, 5am,) and randomly decided to check out the webcams I have for the flocks. Imagine my surprise when I see a mother cluckin' raccoon climbing up one of the barn's support beams on the other side of the chicken wire! I jump out of bed, toss my fluffy green robe over my pj dress, and run barefoot out into the barn. I start grabbing the scrap lumber pieces we have in a pile and throw it at the raccoon while yelling "Get outta here!" like I'm from Jersey instead of Oregon.
Then I realize it's a younger raccoon and was clearly exploring, probably looking for a place to raise a family. Because it couldn't find a way out, except for the big barn opening I was standing in. So I backed up and grabbed the pitchfork. Which is when I noticed Sasha girl (the dog in the above photo) was watching me from the steps of our deck like I was a crazy person.
This dog has never shown an interest in chasing anything unless it was a ball. She clearly picked up on my body language because when the raccoon bolted out, she did that meme of "oh he's running, oh shit we're chasing him." The raccoon ran up over the garden fence and I was like "Com'on Sasha!" and opened the garden gate. She bolted after it, with me in my fluffy green robe wielding a pitchfork over my head following. She followed it back behind the barn (which is about 2 feet from the fence line), but then ran back behind me when the raccoon did the whole fluff and hiss thing as it was cornered.
We probably looked crazy. At least I did.
However, the raccoon has clearly decided to raise a family elsewhere because there's been zero sign of it since.
My apologies to the squirrels that have lived in harmony with Sasha for the last year. Because now she chases them off if the chickens are out. To her, chickens equal friends and raccoons and mini raccoons (aka squirrels) are bad.
