Thursday, April 05, 2007
The past few weeks have been trying for Shannon and I, we were displaced for a few days courtesy of an unwanted roommate. Such a fucking headache, but let me give you the rundown of what's been going on, along with some photos from my ongoing series, Things I Point At.
Shannon and I live in a small beach cottage in Ocean Beach, seen here:
We have lived here for over a year, I hate this place, its old and small. Well, we had heard some little footsteps right above our heads, never thought much of it, figured that it was a squirrel, and we only heard the scratching/footsteps late at night. Well 2 Sundays ago I was in our kitchen in the early evening when I heard some cracking, I turned and looked up at the ceiling and it was bowing severely, looked like it was going to break right before my eyes and whatever was up there was going to fall onto our kitchen table. I went next door to our neighbors yard to see if anything was visible, and I could see a large hole had been dug out in the roof, then while I was watching, the beast showed itself in all its arrogance, it was a raccoon, and a large one at that. He was popping his head in and out of the hole, taunting me, little bastard. I called a the Landlord, animal control, pest control, they all said there was nothing they could until the morning, and all advised us to not go back inside because if that villain were to fall thru the ceiling, he will be violent. We also were not allowed to leave out dog in there alone as we were horrified to learn that a 30 pound raccoon could easily kill a 50 pound dog like Lucy, pictured here:
So that first night we stayed at a Motel 6 with the expectation that the issue would be resolved the following day. On Monday I met with the pest control guy that our Landlord had sent over at 1pm, and as soon as he showed up I told him our situation and showed him the hole in the roof, he immediately said that the hole was certainly dug by a raccoon and that he only deals with smaller pests. I specifically told the landlord that I saw a raccoon, so they sent over a guy who doesn't deal with raccoons, genius. That night we had to board up our dog and stay with our friends Luke and Kathleen, thank goodness they were there to help us out.
The following day a man from critter control came over and said that he could go right in and get the sucker out of there, so we walked around looking for a crawlspace to the roof and learned that our shitty place doesn't have one, so all he could do was put a metal contraption over the hole that would allow the raccoon to exit but not get back in, he stuffed it with newspaper and told me that when we see the newspaper all pushed out, the raccoon has left. Here is the metal thingy:
What this meant was we had to spend the night elsewhere since that is when raccoons do their dirty jobs, and since this is the time of the year they give birth, once we knew it had left, one of us would have to spend the night in there and listen for babies up above, and possibly contend with 1 or 2 pissed of adult raccoons looking for a way back in. The following day the newspaper was still there, so we couldn't stay there yet another night, the day after we returned to see the newspaper pushed out, so here it was, judgement night. Shannon volunteered to stay with me, so we ordered pizza and watched TV and the entire time I had a baseball bat nearby, we kept quiet and walked on our tippy toes, I felt like Anne Frank, only waaaaaaaaaay different. At about 2am I heard some banging on the roof that quickly moved to our back porch, I turned on the lights and looked through the blinds to see this lazy bastard staring right back at me:
I couldn't point at him because as soon as I took this pic, another raccoon raced by the corner to my left so I quickly closed the door to keep these assholes out. They ended up getting into a fight, but they have kept showing back up on random nights, banging the roof and the doors, now I know how the Corey's felt in "The Lost Boys" when they were anticipating that vampire attack at the house, it's like you know the danger is coming, you can't stop it, you can only brace yourself and hope that Kiefer Sutherland doesn't eat your neck.
Sooo, we have opted to move and we were fortunate enough to find this great 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo up in Rancho Bernardo, all new appliances, great community, and I guarantee they don't have a raccoon infestation like we do. Farewell Ocean Beach, I will miss you. And as for you raccoons, I hate you all, please stay away from me and everyone I know. Assholes.
Shannon and I live in a small beach cottage in Ocean Beach, seen here:
We have lived here for over a year, I hate this place, its old and small. Well, we had heard some little footsteps right above our heads, never thought much of it, figured that it was a squirrel, and we only heard the scratching/footsteps late at night. Well 2 Sundays ago I was in our kitchen in the early evening when I heard some cracking, I turned and looked up at the ceiling and it was bowing severely, looked like it was going to break right before my eyes and whatever was up there was going to fall onto our kitchen table. I went next door to our neighbors yard to see if anything was visible, and I could see a large hole had been dug out in the roof, then while I was watching, the beast showed itself in all its arrogance, it was a raccoon, and a large one at that. He was popping his head in and out of the hole, taunting me, little bastard. I called a the Landlord, animal control, pest control, they all said there was nothing they could until the morning, and all advised us to not go back inside because if that villain were to fall thru the ceiling, he will be violent. We also were not allowed to leave out dog in there alone as we were horrified to learn that a 30 pound raccoon could easily kill a 50 pound dog like Lucy, pictured here:
So that first night we stayed at a Motel 6 with the expectation that the issue would be resolved the following day. On Monday I met with the pest control guy that our Landlord had sent over at 1pm, and as soon as he showed up I told him our situation and showed him the hole in the roof, he immediately said that the hole was certainly dug by a raccoon and that he only deals with smaller pests. I specifically told the landlord that I saw a raccoon, so they sent over a guy who doesn't deal with raccoons, genius. That night we had to board up our dog and stay with our friends Luke and Kathleen, thank goodness they were there to help us out.
The following day a man from critter control came over and said that he could go right in and get the sucker out of there, so we walked around looking for a crawlspace to the roof and learned that our shitty place doesn't have one, so all he could do was put a metal contraption over the hole that would allow the raccoon to exit but not get back in, he stuffed it with newspaper and told me that when we see the newspaper all pushed out, the raccoon has left. Here is the metal thingy:
What this meant was we had to spend the night elsewhere since that is when raccoons do their dirty jobs, and since this is the time of the year they give birth, once we knew it had left, one of us would have to spend the night in there and listen for babies up above, and possibly contend with 1 or 2 pissed of adult raccoons looking for a way back in. The following day the newspaper was still there, so we couldn't stay there yet another night, the day after we returned to see the newspaper pushed out, so here it was, judgement night. Shannon volunteered to stay with me, so we ordered pizza and watched TV and the entire time I had a baseball bat nearby, we kept quiet and walked on our tippy toes, I felt like Anne Frank, only waaaaaaaaaay different. At about 2am I heard some banging on the roof that quickly moved to our back porch, I turned on the lights and looked through the blinds to see this lazy bastard staring right back at me:
I couldn't point at him because as soon as I took this pic, another raccoon raced by the corner to my left so I quickly closed the door to keep these assholes out. They ended up getting into a fight, but they have kept showing back up on random nights, banging the roof and the doors, now I know how the Corey's felt in "The Lost Boys" when they were anticipating that vampire attack at the house, it's like you know the danger is coming, you can't stop it, you can only brace yourself and hope that Kiefer Sutherland doesn't eat your neck. Sooo, we have opted to move and we were fortunate enough to find this great 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo up in Rancho Bernardo, all new appliances, great community, and I guarantee they don't have a raccoon infestation like we do. Farewell Ocean Beach, I will miss you. And as for you raccoons, I hate you all, please stay away from me and everyone I know. Assholes.
# posted by laxinonli : 1:37 PM
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