The Raccoon Wars Resume

After a long season of detente, in which the raccoons constrained their foraging to the darkness while the chickens busied themselves in daylight, the peace was suddenly breached.  It has happened before; August seems to be the month when raccoons step out of bounds.  An early evening dinner guest recently stepped away from the table and into the sunroom to answer a call where she noticed through the window a chicken, clenched in the jaws at the opposite end of the ringtail, being dragged toward the fence line.  In broad daylight.  Our friend raised an alarm, and the group of us hurried outside accompanied by as much noise as we could generate.  The offending raccoon, concluding that safety was more desirable than supper, dropped the dazed hen and scurried into the woods.  The traumatized chicken survived, and eventually shook off the assault.  A quick census of the flock, however, revealed that this had not been the first incursion.  

War plans were subsequently drawn and set in motion.  

The battles, in the ensuing days, grew hot and then cold.  Escalating and then briefly calming, they would quickly escalate anew.  We are now three weeks into the conflict, and though it’s hard to know who has the upper hand, I can say that my efforts have not been for naught.  In keeping with my larger vocational urgings, I have evangelistically introduced 25 raccoon souls to Jesus.  

So to speak.  

I’ll spare you the details of the baptism.  And I have every reason to believe that the bushes - if not the fields - remain “white for harvest.”  

So I continue.  So I remain vigilant.  It’s not that I have any particular prejudice against raccoons - and harbor no peculiar animosity.  I completely respect the fact that every life needs and deserves its nourishment.  

Circle of life and food chain and all that.  “Nature red in tooth and claw,” as the poet described it.

I simply require that predators look for their sustenance somewhere other than in our chicken yard.  I have taken the chickens to raise and tend and protect.  It is a commitment I have made to their keeping, and I intend to keep it.  The raccoons are welcome to the rabbits which, this year, frolic in abundance.  There is a veritable carpet of bunnies these summer months, and the bunnies have been known to commit yet another farmstead sin of sneaking into the garden.  Rabbits I can do without.  I have proffered no promises to them or on their behalf.  

But the chickens are another matter. The chickens I will protect.  Should the raccoons return to their nocturnal normal I will happily reinstitute the armistice. 

In the meantime, however, I am vigilant - set, baited and watching.  

Amen.