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> So any other racoon stories or advice?
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My grandfather lives right on the foot of the nearby mountains, and often gets racoons in his yard. He's been living there for nearly 40 years, and the racoons and other forest animals haven't been a problem until the past 5 years. Probably due to a lack of water. .I dunno. Anyway, he got a trap from animal services and he regularly catches racoons in it.

Back in the day, he'd let animal services come and take the racoons..but he knew that they would be killed, and he could do that on his own. This probably sounds terrible, but he puts the racoon and cage in a large bag, and tapes it to the exhaust pipe of his car (the regular gas car, his deisel truck fumes don't work) and lets it die of asphyxiation. (To all animal rights activists who may read this, I am not condoning this, I am only reporting on my grandfather)

I doubt you want to do much of the actual dispoal of the animal, but the trap part isn't to difficult. The racoons are normally terminated, because relocation isn't very sucessful.

On another note, I learned in a Wildlife Manangment class that you should NEVER feel bad for a racoon and let it inside your house. Even cute baby racoons, which are fun, cute and playful. See, a racoon will take your hospitality to the next level: nesting in your attic, inviting the entire racoon population over, stealing your animal's food, your food, the neighbours food, etc. Plus, they get mean when they grow older, like you saw. They will kill your pets, destroy property and much more. Once they get into your house, they are terrible to get rid of, and they will often come back.

I hope that my "extensive racoon knowledge" helps you. I'd suggest calling animal control before you do anything, I'm certain they have more insight into this than I do.

Miss Tess