monsters in the night.................

We are enjoying our stay here in Washington. Everything is so green from all the rain, which we are enjoying as well :)

Our dog, Konig, is rather large and takes up A LOT of space in our RV. So, he usually spends most of his days and nights outside when we are camped for a long period of time; which for us is more than one day! We have a great kennel for him and he loves to be outside. He has a long leash and can come and go as he pleases in our camp site.

Things were just as I said the first night we were here at this particular campsite. We were all in bed and Konig was too - outside in his kennel. About 1:30AM he starts to bark. Now this isn’t shocking, especially when we are in a new place. Every new noise seems to stir him and in turn wake me up. I open the window, yell, close the window and go back to sleep – hopefully!

Well, this particular night was no different. I did what I said, but he wouldn’t quit. So I turned on the outside porch light and took a look out the window and there, up a tree was a raccoon! Cute little guy, and BIG, but at least 8 feet up and clinging on for dear life. I brought the dog in and watched through the window as the raccoon climbed down the tree and hightailed it into the woods to join the other one (which I saw from a distance). I tried to get a picture while he was in the tree, but couldn’t get the camera to work in the dark without playing around with it and that took too long.

The following night was quiet and uneventful and I had hoped that the thought of a dog lurking about was enough for the raccoons to stay away, but I was wrong. Last night Konig wanted to sleep inside. So we brought him in and all was well. Not for long……….about 2:30 I hear this shaking sound. It reminded me of someone shaking a box of cereal or a puzzle box. I couldn’t quite place it in my sleeping stupor, so I listened for a while as I woke up. I have always been a light sleeper and wake up to just about anything. I suppose that is why all our children didn’t sleep through the night until they were, well, OLD! I would hear them cry and in I would run. I totally failed baby sleeping 101 that is for sure!

Anyway, as I am listening to this shaking noise I start to think that someone is in our compartments underneath the RV. We have ample storage and it is located directly under our bed. I go into the main room and turn on the flood lights that light up the back of the RV, thinking that if it was a person they would run off. I go back into our room and look out the window and what do I see…. a raccoon with Konig's dog food container! YES! He was dragging it into the woods and that was the shaking sound. It is quite a large container, holding about a weeks worth of dog food (4 cups a day – you do the math, I don’t want to) . It was amazing and he was going pretty fast. Little monster!!! So, being the good wife that I am, I woke up my husband. I asked him if he was willing to go outside in the cold and get the dog food back. He is a good sport and hightailed it out there with a marshmallow poker stake and a running sneaker as his weapons of choice.

The rest was uneventful. As soon as the raccoon saw him he scurried away and my brave husband grabbed the dog food and put it in the RV. I still can’t get over how bold they are. I have read and heard about them, but to see what they can do – wow!

I hope that this is our last raccoon tale, but I have a sneaking suspicion it is not!

See ya
Mom