Oncc upon a time the small garage door had been left open so the dogs could go in & out & sleep in their dog houses. The dogs had spent the evening indoors & at 10:00 they would be put into the garage for the night. If left out they would keep the whole neighborhood up chasing deer & barking a good part of the night chasing imaginary shadows across the yard.

There was a ladder leaned up to the overhead attic in the garage where we stored our stuff. About 2:00 in the morning when we were all deep in slumber a ruckess broke out in the garage. There was barking & snarling like you would not believe. It woke me & our sons up. Were going like what the heck is going on. Our older son grabbed the shot gun. We got our shoes on & headed out to the garage & opened the small door. On top of the car was this huge masked bandit a raccoon. Our son wanted to shot it but that would mean a big hole in the raccoon plus our bedroom wall. I said no don't shot. There has to be a better way. We got treats for the dogs & called them into the house where they spent the rest of the night. We opened up the garage doors so the raccoon could leave on its' own.

The raccoon left a mess up in the attic of course. After that the ladder was leaned up against the opposite wall & we kept the garage door closed so no more critters would move in on us & wake us up in the middle of the night.

Except the coyote that would come when it was dark & eat out of the dog dish on the porch.