Get it?!?. It’s my hokey way of saying farewell to our furry friends who have been living under our deck for the past month. We had some suspicions about the large raccoon prowling around our neighborhood, but only recently discovered that it’s home was under our deck. We assumed it was male since it was so large, but later discovered that “he” is actually a “she” because she has been spotted with babies. We dubbed her “Mama-Coon”, as she is a mom as well as a raccoon; seemed a fitting name!

What we didn’t know is that she was also hoarding several little raccoon pups under there as well. I like to think that there was an ad out in “Raccoon Weekly” and it looked something like this:

BRAND NEW and vacant under-deck dwelling featuring large, dark and private living and dining rooms, super spacious and cozy bedrooms (den) for nesting and birthing and a rarely visited location that is perfect for a quiet, cozy getaway from all those pesky predators and humans! Conveniently located near several bodies of water and forests. All available right now in your neighborhood for FREE! Hurry or it’ll go fast!

Once we realized she was definitely squatting under our deck, we decided we would try to encourage her to move out. Because there was a winter storm headed our way, I convinced Jake to wait so that the mom and potential babies (since we weren’t positive there were babies under there too) and didn’t want to force them out during the winter storm, so we gave them a few days of reprieve until the storm passed.

So yesterday Jake attempted all manners of encouraging our ‘Mama Coon’ and family to move out; ammonia and tennis balls, super toxic habanero chili/cayenne pepper concoction, and lots of light. We definitely frazzled mama coon, but we weren’t sure it worked, since she didn’t actually leave until 24 hours later.

I happened to be home early from the gym and caught the whole thing on video. It happened over a 2-hour time span, which is CRAZY (since the video is only 3 minutes). We had suspected 2-3 babies under there but it turned out that there were seven!

I felt horrible but its best for them and us, as they were scratching up under our deck and could cause a lot of problems in the future as they get bigger. So we said our sad farewell (well not Jake so much, but I was sad), and made a video in honor of “Mama Coon” and her 7 babies! Hopefully that will be the last of them squatting under our deck, but who knows?

Also note that raccoons and baby raccoons are the cutest things in the world – can’t believe we got to see them up close and personal! Mother Nature is magical.