In the Attic

One evening, Kris stopped me as I was going down the stairs. "Dad, come in my room for a minute; I want you to hear something." Unbeknownst to me as to which heavy metal sound he wanted me to hear, but I obliged willingly anyway. I strolled back up the stairs into his room, and said, "Okay, what is it?" "Listen" he said, "Do you hear it?" "Hear what?" "The noise!" he exclaimed, as he huddled over the edge of his bed, "In the corner; You have to listen." So, I stood motionless by the edge of his bookshelf in the corner of his room, and indeed I heard what he wanted me to hear. "What the hell is that?", I clamored. "I don't know", he said, "but I've been hearing it every night for a couple weeks, it keeps me up at night."

I listened closely so I could determine exactly where the noise was coming from, and what it was that we were hearing. It was a series of chirping, unlike that of a bird, or of anything else I have ever heard. I turned to Kris and said, "Okay, what are you doing?" I know my kids well enough to realize they try to pull fast ones on me from time to time, and it was this that I suspected now, "gonna make a fool out of Dad tonight, make him think we got a monster in the walls."

Kris insisted that he was doing nothing to make this noise, so setting myself up to be abused, I called Delana up to hear it. When she arrived, I fully expected to be laughed at by all, and told that it was Kris making the noise somehow. That wasn't the case though; there was really something in the wall. Soon Adrian and Jenn also piped in and said they had been hearing noises too, scratching, shuffling, squeaky chirping, all coming from the attic.

I was prompted to stick my head up into the attic and see what it was. "Are you crazy? I'm not sticking my head up there, I don't even have a flashlight, and I have no idea what that is." We all concluded that it was probably bats that had somehow made their way into the wall. After all, it wasn't too long ago that we had a couple of them in the garage. Mr Scaredycat, as I have been labeled, didn't want any part of them either. It was decided that there would be further investigation at a later date.

Over the weekend, Jeremy was visiting, and came in the house just after dusk, "I saw it! I know what's up there, it's a raccoon, and it's huge!" I asked him how he saw it, and he said that he was walking outside, heard a noise and looked up to see it coming out of the attic. I hurried outside and looked up to see the hole that this creature had made in order to get inside the attic. We then hurried around to the side of the house looking for it, and saw a large hump on the roof, motionless. As it was dusk, it looked only like a big large lump, so we weren't sure if that was it or not. After throwing a few things at it, it moved. This was a large raccoon, and I didn't like the idea of it setting up house in our attic.

During the upcoming week, I called the local creature removal company (Varmint Guard) and within a couple of days, there were three traps on my roof. This of course drew attention from the neighbors, "So, you got some varmints huh?" "No, I just like giving the indication that I do, kinda miss having Christmas lights up and all." Several days passed, with no trapped animals, then one night, we saw it outside on the roof again, and decided to get some pictures of it. This didn't make the raccoon too happy; add on to that, that the boys were chasing it around the roof from the ground, and climbing up the tree it used to get up and down in, which was not too bright I might add, and I felt we had an unhappy raccoon now to deal with.

Several more days passed, and nothing was heard from the attic at all. I considered poking my head up there at this point, but still wasn't brave enough. Then one night, I heard this crying sound from outside the front door. I opened the door and heard it even louder, like the animal was on the roof right above the door. So I stepped out, cautiously peered out and up onto the roof, yet saw nothing. It was then I realized that the sound was coming from inside the roof, from the vent.

I called everyone again to come hear this noise, and it was decided that a baby had migrated to this area, and was alone, stuck, and scared. Earlier in the week, we had evidently "bothered" the mother raccoon enough that she packed her belongings (kits) and left, except for the little one that was left behind. Well, I called Varmint Guard again, but it was Friday night, and they were closed until Monday. The hot line did not prove to be so hot, as I did not hear from them again until Sunday afternoon. After several minutes of prodding, I was shamed into peeling back the vent to see what was up there.

It was dark, I couldn't see, and I had no flashlight. I ended up using the flash from my camera to try and take pictures to see where and what this thing was. Along with the mop that I was using to prod around with in the small hole I had made in the roof, I guess my neighbors probably thought I was loony, but I finally got a glimpse on camera of what we were dealing with.

I was eventually able to force it to the edge and pull it out of the roof, and drop it into a basket. "Success! We have captured the wild creature! Ummm, now what are we going to do with it?" The crying was very loud and annoying, this was not a happy camper. The poor little thing was so young, it didn't even have it's eyes open yet. It's good I took such caution capturing this guy. We took it to the garage, and after a few minutes gawking session by all, left it there in a large recycling bin with the back door open in case mom wanted to come get the kit.

Saturday morning rolled around, and when I went out to check on the little raccoon, it wasn't moving. Awwe, I hoped it had not passed away over night, so I gently kicked the recycling bin, and was happy to see it begin to stir from a nights sleep...and oh yeah, that crying started again!

Delana decided to go to the store and get something to feed it. Maybe that would help it survive until we could find out what to do with it. She called Tim, our brother-in-law, who conveniently works for the Parks service, and he gave us some numbers to call. We finally found out where we could take the little raccoon that he would be safe and cared for - The Ohio Wildlife Center.

Once we had that figured out, we got a little bit of food in it, and took a few more pictures, then wrapped it in a towel and headed for the center. Later in the day we got a phone call letting us know that the little raccoon was doing well, and had been transferred to another facility in Belleville, where there was a litter there that was close to his age that he should be able to adapt to. They told us that around August, he should be able to be released back to the wild, and would be introduced back into the same county he was taken from. They will keep us up to date.

The other day, I am standing out in front of the house, and guess what strolls up to me from across the street...a mom and pop duck. Hmmm, Wild Kingdom?