Too much excitement for a Tuesday....

I was sitting in the living room, minding my own business, watching the episode of Castle that I recorded last night when I heard a major scrabbling in the kitchen.

"Damn," I thought. "Astra's brought in another live bird." Hoping against hope, I got up and went to look. Astra's live birds have a tendency to perch on the curtain rod at the sliding glass door, so that's the first place my eyes went.

Was there a bird there? Hell, no! Staring back at me, just as astonished to see me as I was to see him, was a full grown raccoon hanging from the curtain rod by his front paws.

"Holy shit," said I, having no other words to cover the situation. I've had cat doors for twenty years or so. I've had cats bring strange things in through them; I've had cats that didn't live at my house come through them. But I have never, ever had a wild animal come into my house through one, despite the fact that I've had coons and possums wander on my porch in the immediate neighborhood of the cat door.

Well, I've never had a wild animal come through under it's own power and alive, anyway....although the occasional take out dinner of bunny tartare has come through the door, escorted by the chef.

I stopped to pause the recording (I have NO idea why, but it seemed important at the time), scooped up the cordless phone, and hustled my butt out to the garage and closed the door.

I then proceeded to call 911, and they dispatched a couple of Indy's finest to tackle the raccoon.

I figured what the hey, opened the big garage door, and the tailgate of my car, and sat down to wait. I noticed that Astra and Hillary were both out there with me, for which I was grateful --- I've seen what a raccoon can do to a cat half its size.

The officers entered the house cautiously. We could see that the raccoon was no longer visibly in the kitchen, and with that I withdrew back to the garage....while listening to one cop say to the other "I REALLY don't want to have to shoot it in the house..." and the other replying "Yeah, but I don't want to get bit, either."

After about ten minutes, they came back out. Very anti-climactic, in both a good and bad way, I suppose: there are no bullet holes in my house, but neither did they find the raccoon.

Presumption is that, being a pretty bright critter, Mr. Coon betook himself back out the same way he came in, having discovered that what he'd thought might be an interesting habitat of Free Dinner was infested with those pesky humans.

Did my own pass through the house (and closed the cat door, into the bargain). 'Pears they're right....but on caution's side, I closed the door to the quilt room. Having hunted cats in there, I know it's possible for a ccon to hide in there behind piles of fabric and never be seen by the cops.....so on the offest chance that he did go that way, at least he's confined. And since I know the cats AREN'T in there, if I hear any scrabbling coming from that room, we'll be calling Northwest District IMPD again.....

I'll also probably close my bedroom door tonight. But the cats have explored the house as carefully as the cops did, and I've not seen a single bit of freaking, yowling or growling, so I think he left.

Still, I've got WAY too much adrenaline coursing thru the veins for a half hour to bedtime.....

Oy! :)