Rocky the Raccoon - The Whole Story So we knew, because we had seen it when we had put the garbage out at night, that Rocky was a particulary smart critter. We have "wheelie bin" type of things over here except they are alot bigger. We were beginers at the garbage putting out process, so we discovered earlier that putting out the garbage (from the garage where it lives) the night before a garbage collection day was just asking for trouble. Rocky would have the bin over and the lid off in no time and by the next morning the garbage was all over the street. So we wised up and only put out the re-cycling the night before and tried to get up in time to put the garbage out by 6:00 in the morning. Then the fun began. Now the garage is a double size job with an automatic up and over door which is controlled from inside the car. This is very handy if you do not want to meet your neighbours or get cold in the winter. You can drive straight into the garage shut the door behind you get out of your car and enter the house from the internal garage door. Some folks that we visited on the weekend said that although they knew that someone lived in the house next door to theirs (it was less than 15 feet from them) they would not know the man if they met him in the street. He has never come out of his front door - only coming out of the garage in his car. So, as we get near to the house, we push the garage door button and drive into the garage. Usually we leave the garage door open during the day as we tend to need to go in there to get things like tools. At some stage before we close up for the night, we close the garage door. On this particular occassion, we went into the garage to get the car to take the boys to school. The pesky beast had been in the garage and managed to get into the bin (knocking it over) and making a big mess. We also noticed that he had left some of his own deposits behind. Well I looked high and low to find out how he had got in. The only hole I could find was about 4 inches across, so I plugged it with wood. I also noticed some animal deposits on the garage roof. So the next night we made sure the bin was well sealed and the garage was safely sealed. I actually went into the garage about 9:00pm (after the garage doors had been closed for about 3 hours) and found he had been in and into the bin again. Put the rubbish back in the bin and an extra box on top of the bin. Next morning - same thing. Bin had been knocked over and more deposits left. When I came back from taking the boys to school that morning, there was a pest control van at one of the neighbour's houses. He was spraying the outside of their house to kill spiders! We know they have a greater disposable income than we have in the UK but really there must be better things to spend your money on. I asked the pest control man to come and take a look when he had finished his job. He looked around the garage and gave me all sorts of reasons that a raccoon would be able to get in. "They are really smart and they can lift up the garage door you know". Although he could not show me how the animal was actually getting in. He did think that he may be getting in through the roof and coming through the attic door. This tied up with the pooh on the roof as well. Anyway, he was a bug specialist. He suggested I call in the mammal experts. I thought I would have a go myself. So knowing that the animal had been into the garage before 9:00pm, I got myself a book and got inside the car at 8:30pm. Julian was quite concerned about this. The pest controller had said that the animals were strong enough to push the garage door up. Well since the garage door is attached to the auto opening mechanism, when it is down it is virtually locked. At least when I tried to open it when I was inside with Julian, I was unable to get it up more than and inch. This immediately led Julian to conclude that the animal must be much stronger than me and that if I was confronted by it I might be thrown in the lake by it! I closed up the garage, got inside the car and put the side lights of the car on. About 20 minutes later he appeared. I couldn't believe it. He appeared from behind a stack of boxes and rubbish in the corner. It was one place I had not looked behind to look for ways that he could get in. I looked at him for a while and decided that he was so docile looking that I could probably manage to get out the car, open the garage door, go and get Julian and a camera and come back in again. I shut the garage door behind me as I went to get him. We got back in the car together and waited another 10 minutes. Rocky came back. Julian was virtually wetting himself with excitement. He was less than 5 feet form us although we were safe inside the car. We took a load of pictures and watched him for about 20 minutes. He moved very slowly and seemed to be trying to crawl up the wall. He was eating the spiders that were crawling around in their webs. When we had had enough of all this we when back into the house making sure we left the garage door open for the night, so he would be free to come and go. Needless to say he got in the bin again that night and perhaps his mates had a go as well. The next day I pulled out all the trunks and rubbish to see how he had got in. I was surprised and sort of relieved to discover that there was no way in there. This guy had taken up residence and was living in the garage. He was so comfortable and had all his food provided that he didn't even need to leave. I subsequently discovered that he had gnawed the inside of the garage door in an attempt to get out. The pooh was the other clue. He had to because he could not get out. All the time we were thinking how did he get in but it was all about how he didn't get out. The thing was that during the day when the garage door would be left mainly open, you would have expected him to make a runner for it. Except that they are nocturnal creatures and he would have been sleeping during the day. So that's the story. We acquired another house guest. He has subsequently disappeared.