Monday, March 27, 2006

Bandits at 6 o'clock (am)


For a month now, there have been noises above my apartment. Due to the building design, no one lives directly above me: it's my neighbour's patio deck.

It is also a condo for raccoons. The noises occur between 4 and 6 am, clearly when the nocturnal noisemakers of noteriety were coming home from The Dumpster Buffet. I have been complaining to the apartment complex since March 3 or so. In that time, the pest control geniuses have done the following (no animals have been harmed, btw):

1. They set a trap that clearly inhibited the raccoon from getting out (even into the trap). It's hard to explain but the animals would use a hole through a wood panel that clearly swung open; the men stapled the panel shut.

2. They caught a cat (because they use tuna for bait -- from what I've read, I think they should be using berries/cherries. Raccoons love sweet berries; cats don't.)

3. They caught a raccoon and boarded up the deck. Upon my return from a long vacation, there were still noises, from a raccoon that seemed rather impatient to get out, considering it had been there for days.

4. After another 4 days, they open the deck again. The "pest control guy" drops by on Thursdays. I wonder when the fire dept "drops by"; if I have a fire, I want to schedule it accordingly. This one was my fault for not raising a bigger, err, stink as there might have been dying mammals in my abode.

5. This weekend, another young cat was caught. He wouldn't shut up so I let him out of the trap. Fiesty little bugger. No collar, and when released, he was off like a shot, up the shingled roof to the side of the decks. I suspect he was an alley cat. He didn't even stop to say thanks!

6. This morning, we have culprit #2. See the pic. But there were major noises around 6 am so I think Momma is still up there. Great.

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