A cat and the racoons (cont.) pages 3,4

to try and catch him.
I was telling Fred Dunmire about my dilemma and he said, "I have a live trap, never been out of the box."
"Would you like to borrow it"
"Sure," I said.
So I did. I took the trap out of the box and set it up. I put in a bowl of cat food, then shut our cats in the garage. Later that night, onto the patio crept the cat.
Very warily, into the trap he sneaked The door slammed shut and I had him.
This trap had a door on both ends. One end had the trip/catch mechanism and the other just opened to release the animal. When I picked up the trap by the handle in the middle to carry it to the pickup, the cat shifted to the release end. The trap went vertical and somehow the funky little clip that held the door closed released letting the cat escape. Dang it.
Almost the entire month of March was spent trying to get the cat back in the trap.
About the 25th of March I woke up on Sunday morning to find a raccoon in the trap.
Not making the same mistake twice, I wired both ends of the cage shut. The pickup was full of furniture waiting for a trip to Kelly's House. I was left with the van for my trip to the country with the raccoon. I could just picture the cage coming open and into the front seat while I was driving comes a mad raccoon.



Trap # 1 and Racoon # 1

Not a pretty thought while listening to an angry growling animal with very sharp fingernails. He wasn't liking his temporary home.
We then went for a Sunday morning ride in the country out by the coffin butte landfill. After arriving at the release place, I opened the side door of the van and took out the trap with the raccoon and sat it on the ground close to the door of the van. Then I got into the van through the side door. Leaving the door open just enough for my arm I reached out with a pair of wire cutters and cut the wires holding the release door closed. I opened the door and the raccoon went bounding off into the bushes.
So the first raccoon trapping was pretty much an accident while trying to catch a cat. I did think, however, that the raccoon problem had been solved. So I continued trying to catch the cat in the cage, i.e.; putting food in it etc. I even lined the bottom of the trap with cardboard to make it look different. I also left the trap