Wild America, right here in our own back yard

We have a little masked friend in our backyard.

Actually, the little stinker is much bigger and much more conniving than that picture portrays.

No doubt planning his next raid

He has taken leftover dog food from the deck (we no longer leave anything out). Once that was a no-go, he turned to the next best thing.

TRASH!

Every few nights around 1 AM, he makes a special trip to see if there are any delectable morsels. He walks along the fence and lowers himself to the trash which we keep in our back yard. He isn't the least bit shy and makes sure to slam the lid quite loudly, and then proceeds to drag various things out. 

However, I suppose I shouldn't begrudge him too much, he likely has mouths to feed as well.

The other day, I went outside and noticed some trash on top of the fence. about 20 feet away from the trash can. Upon closer inspection, I found that the raccoon had dragged the bag of dark-chocolate covered pretzels (can't fault his taste!) and eaten all the last crumbs. Right next to the bag, he carefully left a wipe that he must have used to clean his hands and face after he ate as there were several chocolate smudges on it! how funny that he had made sure to bring a wipe (although that has it's own level of gross) along with him. 

Pat is drawing up plans to enclose the trash and prevent further raids, and no doubt the raccoon will feel like this when he learns what will transpire.

A few years ago, we went outside to discover the cause of Wrigley's persistent barking. We found a little box turtle carefully tucked into his shell. We didn't see him for a couple years, but early this spring, we again detected the same subtle change in Wrigley's bark and ran out to discover that yes, once again, she had found the turtle!

He has since shown up several times around the yard, under the deck, rabbit cages, or in the garden. Yesterday, we found him happily enjoying an old tomato that had fallen to the ground! We have yet to name him, any ideas?

We also have some animal getting into our attic. Squirrel is my guess, it sounds too loud to be a mouse and is not frequent enough to make me think it lives there. But we do need to figure out how to seal up the attic!

And last but not least, however possibly grossest, I just pulled something out from the garage and found some seeds and (horror of horrors) mouse droppings on it. 

In addition to that, Pat recently heard on the radio that the creatures that most commonly carry lyme disease are not deer, but are smaller animals: mice, rats, raccoons. 

So, does that make a good enough argument to get an outside cat?

I'm not sure, I just can't stand the idea of ever having to deal with a litter box!