The cat saga continues - May 21, 2020

The plan:  feed the cat in the trap every day, twice a day, with the trap not set, putting the food farther and farther into the trap each time, until she'll go far enough into the trap to spring it.  Then set the trap and catch her.

Last night at the cat's suppertime (she comes to the door when she smells supper cooking), the cat was not to be found.  About 9:30 last night, she showed up, meowing, while I was doing some computer work on the back porch.  I got up, put some food in the trap, and went back to the computer. 

In a minute, the cat gave a terrible, vampiric hiss.  I jumped up to see what was out there, but saw nothing, not even the cat.  I went back to the computer.  A minute or two later, I heard a growl, more like a dog growl than a cat growl.  I jumped up again, opened the screen door, and looked out.  There was a huge raccoon eating the cat food in the trap.  I screamed, "GET OUT OF HERE!" but it just looked at me and kept eating.

I went inside and told The Husband.  He went out to the back porch and grabbed the pellet rifle that we've been keeping propped by the back door ever since we were armadillo hunting last fall.  It's almost as loud as a rifle.  The Husband thought the sound would scare the coon away, but it didn't; it stood up on its hind legs and looked at us, like, "What?" and returned to its meal.  The Husband re-loaded the pellet gun, and shot at a galvanized tin wash tub that was right behind the coon, thinking that the PING would scare the coon away.  It did.  For a minute.

I said, "Shoot it if it comes back!" 

He said, "The pellet gun won't kill it, and it might put its eye out." 

And I was, like, WTF?  WHO CARES?

The Husband went back inside, and I went back to my computer work, and the growling continued, ferocious and insistent.  I heard scampering noises from two different directions, and I'm pretty sure one of them was NOT the cat.  I came inside and got a high-powered flashlight and shined it around the yard just in time to see a raccoon tail disappearing over the hill, but I could still hear scampering noises coming from another part of the yard.  I think we had two raccoons arguing over the cat food.  I went inside and told The Husband we should set the trap and catch the raccoon.  He said, "Then what?"  Neither of us has the heart to shoot it in the trap - how sporting would that be? - and then what would we do with a dead raccoon?  If we chose to haul it away and release it, we'd have to drive it 10 miles or more to keep it from coming back.

I tell you, I am about sick of this animal business.  We thought that keeping the stray cat would cut down on snakes, mice, etc., but it seems like we're just drawing other critters to the yard. 

I am still waiting on the call from Animal Control, still determined to get them to help me catch this cat so I can take it to the vet to be spayed.

Meanwhile, the cat will probably drop a load of kittens on us.

Animal Control should come get this cat while there's only one to catch!