It has been our policy in recent years that when the cats disdain the leftover food in their bowls, that residuum is placed outdoors on the stoop for the benefit of stray feral cats. The side effect is that we tend to also feed squirrels, chipmunks, possums, fieldmice, foxes, and probably other nocturnal creatures. The most enjoyable visitors have been the raccoons - sometimes entire families - who fastidiously pick up each individual cat food pellet, and sometimes wash the food in a nearby water bowl (hence the German term "waschbär.")
Our delight in the cute little critters has recently been tempered by the discovery of attic insulation on the roof and loose soffit panels at various places. A "critter-gitter" guy came and placed a Hav-a-hart trap on the roof. The photo above shows TWO raccoons who both climbed in after the bait. We trapped another one the next night and have one or two more to go. The guy says he catches these by the hundreds in the suburbs near here; supposedly he releases them on a farm several counties away (but I wonder if he doesn't just drive them to the next subdivision to boost his business...)
To the left of the raccoons you can see one of several places where they ripped off the soffits to access the attic space. We've taken down one tree that overlapped the roof, but raccoons are capable of climbing downspouts, deck supports, and even vertical brick walls at the corners, so we may have more adventures ahead...
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