Coon Season

Something is tearing up everything in the backyard.  This morning things turned ugly when I saw that a stand that my Dad had made for me from a tripod that was my grandfather's was shattered. And the geraniums that were perched on top were upside down and broken on the ground.  So I borrowed this trap from Dewey and Betsy.  So about 8PM Michael and I went to UDF to get some bait to put in the trap...chocolate donuts!  Before going to bed Michael and I set the trip with a whole doughnut wired in. Perfect, so we thought!  After tossing and turning for an hour I came down to check and the doughnut was gone and no coon.  Hmmm...what does that say about my trapping abilities?

It is now 3:04AM...1 and 1/2 chocolate doughnuts and we have....

I haven't slept a minute.  Mark  dug in on the couch in the family room.  I don't know if he or Ella heard the trap close but at 3:04AM I hear from the bottom of the steps..'Jan, you got one.'  I flew down the stairs and grabbed my camera and flash.  Flash had dead batteries...how does that happen?

This morning Michael was excited that we 'got one'.  Poor old thing.  It;s paws were bleeding where I guess he was trying to get out and poor old thing has a cataract on one eye.  It was sprinkling so he had no cover, so he just balled up.

So Rickie, got to take a little ride to our favorite kayak put in.  He was excited to get out and gone so I got not a single picture.  Next time I will be prepared.  This must be a good spot because a man saw what we were doing and told us he had let three go in the same place.  We figured it was a good spot...not much traffic, the river, lots of shelter and plenty of trash cans.  Who knows maybe one day we will meet again.

Tonight we are on for hunt #2.  We still have 5 1/2 donuts left and a few more coons to capture and release.  Think I might camp out on the couch tonight.