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My husband just told me we have a “large” animal living in the cellar beneath our house.
Me: “How large?”
Him: “Well, it wasn’t afraid of me. It just kind of waddled away swishing its fluffy tail in my direction.”
Yikes!
“Do you think it was a raccoon?” I ask hopefully.
The only other animal small enough to get into the cellar is, yes, you’ve guessed it – a SKUNK. Double, triple yikes. (Faithful readers will remember the unrelenting Skunk Siege of December 2014.)
He seems to read my mind: “Maybe that’s why our house smelt so bad for so 
long – a skunk confronted our raccoon.”
Now it’s our raccoon. I must nip this idea in the bud, immediately. Hubby has already adopted several squirrels and chickadees. “It’s not our raccoon!”
He has another idea. A few weeks back he left the door to the cellar ajar and of course Pretty Kitty with his little furry paws managed to pry it open and romp around in the dark, dank and dirt of the storage area. Of course we didn’t realize it until three in the morning when we heard a piteous yowl and practically fell out of bed. “What the hell was that?” We both asked in unison. The resulting search of the house failed to locate Kitty and, after coming to the conclusion that he was hiding in some deep crevice and would come out when he was ready, back to bed we stumbled to try to get some rest. In the morning Kitty still could not be found, until around noon when I looked out the back door and there he was.
Playing peek-a-boo
Snubbing his nose at us as if to say, “Aren’t I a clever cat”?
Hubby’s new idea is that the cat ran into the raccoon. “Maybe that’s how he got outside.”
“Wait a minute. If it’s been under the house for so long then what’s it been living off?”
“Hum. I haven’t caught any rats in a while.”
Great! Apparently while I sleep there’s a party going on beneath me. Cats, rats, raccoons and skunks. Did I mention that we keep our wine in the cellar?
If he can wrestle crocodiles, I reckon he can take on a raccoon!
Never fear. We’ve called in Crocodile Dundee to track the wild beast down. Who knows? Maybe it’s a drunken kangaroo and he’ll know just what to do.
I’ll let you know how that goes.
Saying nothing in particular 
Be careful. Racoons can be really vicious. We had a few run ins with them growing up. Your cat seems to be none worse for wear though.
Thanks John – that’s why we called in Crocodile Dundee!
It is much more likely to be a tax official!
A drunken tax official! Oh no!!!
Nice one!!!… Raccons scare me even more than a drunken kangaroo, or just a kangaroo, as you wish!… Cheers. Aquileana 😀
Thanks! I’m afraid of both kangaroos and raccoon! Hope ole Croc knows what he’s doing!
Hopefully no bats in the belfry. Oh those raccoons, so cute as babies, and so foxy when they grow up. Good luck.
Thank you!
Jan, you need to charge admission. You have a relative zoo on your hands! :O)
That’s what I’m afraid of!
LOL :O)
I hope they find something. I’d hate to think your cellar is haunted, Jan.
Glad you called in Crocodile Dundee! I’m sure he can handle it. But yes, while you’re waiting for him to arrive, be careful in case it’s a raccoon. They’re so adorable, but when they get mad, they’re nasty. As for kangaroos, all I can say is that my daughter was bitten by one at a petting zoo when she was very little. Not a pleasant experience for her, although her doctor assured me that kangaroos hardly ever carry rabies. Best of luck with your creature, and I’m glad your kitty’s OK!
Thanks Mary! I’ll let you know what happens (if I survive that is!)
Good luck. We had a family of squirrels living with us for a time. Did they pay rent even once? No!
No rent? What a family of free-loaders!
LOL! This was a great read. I can relate. We have welcome (aka our outdoor wild bunnies), and unwelcome (aka raccoons and skunks) visitors under our deck. We’re currently ‘coon free – thanks to a very large brick covering their entryway. But we left a bunny-sized hidey-hole open for the welcome ones. 🙂
Ah, how sweet! I’m afraid we have mountain lions in the hills where we live so we don’t have any cute little bunnies! We can’t figure out how the beast got in – hopefully Dundee can do that for us!
I hope the basement critter doesn’t harm any of your wine. I used to think raccoons were so cute until I worked a couple of winter seasons in the Everglades. They would haul dead fish up onto the walkways that went around the dorm rooms. The first time I encountered one like that, it hissed and ran towards me. It was a scenario repeated many times after that…
Gosh, reading all these comments about raccoons is making me rethink my earlier position that they are kind of cute and sweet in a rascally way. I don’t think I’d want one living under my house, either… but better than snakes, I guess. Definitely better than snakes.
Yes, a cellar full of snakes would definitely not be a pleasant scenario! Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Good post! (You could call animal services to investigate – it takes them awhile to come out however.)
Thanks Cinda, I called one of those humane pest removal organizations – they were very helpful.
Oh my goodness Jan – (I mean JT) this is super fun!
Thanks! We ended up having to get the crawl space completely rodent proofed. It’s not the place where you want to run into skunks, raccoons or kangaroos!