Raccoon drama

Not long after we went to bed last night, we heard a dog bowl being batted around on the back porch.

Since Pete was in his kennel and Ruthie was snoring on the carpet, we knew we had an intruder.

I went to the back door and snapped on the lights, startling a medium-sized raccoon who had come in through the dog door.

The raccoon shot me a look and then ambled out the way it had come.

I waited a few seconds to give it a decent head start – don’t want my dogs in any fights to the death with a raccoon – and then released the hounds.

The raccoon’s scent was fresh in the air, so they were properly indignant when they charged through the dog door and tore around the yard, barking murderous threats to anything that would dare to trespass in their domain.

When they came back to bed, Ruthie was still in a high state of agitation. Her senility makes her crazy restless sometimes at bedtime and she roams the house aimlessly and sometimes scratches on the bedroom door, even though it’s wide open. It’s like she’s looking for a portal to another dimension.

I drifted off to sleep, but she started whining, which woke us up and prompted Maria to give her a dose of Valium (as prescribed by the vet). It took about a half-hour for the drug to kick in, and then she was out like a light. I had to gently shake her for several seconds to wake her up this morning.

Looks like we’ll have to start bringing the dog bowls in at night.