A mystery has been solved

[DaviDC.]

I keep a Rubbermaid container of dry cat food near the backdoor for the yard cats. It's been there for years & I replenish it with the cheapest stuff I can find.

A few days ago it was missing. My yard is fenced & I hadn't seen evidence of dogs digging under or jumping over the fence, which made this all the more odd. I walked around the yard looking for it & checked the kitchen thinking that maybe I had brought it inside for some reason, but it was gone.

I found a plastic coffee can with a lid & used that for cat food storage. Life goes on.

Earlier this evening I heard the outside food bowl being scraped over concrete & grabbed the flashlight & went out to see what it was. A cat will never move a bowl when it eats but dogs do so I figured a dog had gotten in the yard.

I wasn't prepared to find a giant raccoon scraping the food container over the concrete trying to get the top off. This thing might've weighed 25-30 pounds; it was BIG! It stopped & hissed at me then scurried over the fence & disappeared into the privot thicket next door.

I think I can safely assume that this raccoon, or one of its brethren, made off with the Rubbermaid cat food container.

[JoeH]

That is why you should not store food outside near a house, it attracts wildlife. One of my brothers had a problem caused by a neighbor storing birdseed outside her garage in a covered garbage can a few years ago. Well. it started attracting wildlife, brother and his girlfriend started having black bears wander into town following the power line right of way, through their back yard less than 10 feet from the door to go to the neighbor's yard.

[olnacl]

A neighbor who has a "cat door"recently found a raccoon in her kitchen casually eating from the cat's food dish.

I guess the dismal economy is affecting everybody.

[Dennis S]

I had a coon in the birdseed on the carport 2 nights ago.

[kap]

My aunt's husband at the time left a cat food bowl in the garage for his stray cat. Our pooch went there for a midnight snack and was attacked by two coons! He lost and ended up in the emergency with a cut in his hind leg. He survived but has much respected for those coons now.

[Michael]

I finally put a light chain on our bowl that we use to feed the feral cats. I got tired of having to go look for it in the woods where the raccoons dragged it. We used to just keep food in it, but now only put food in when a cat jumps on our window sill and looks plaintive!

[blooz]

I wrote a while back about a raccoon trying to open my deck door.
They are sly devils.
I think this one was the one who climbed up on the snow pile and made off with my suet holder for the birds.

[BernDog]

Raccoons get on our back porch, momma just chases them off with a broom.

[OWC Jamie]

I had a big one I tried to keep out of the garbage can on the deck.
Pushed a concrete block off the top.
Untied knots on ropes attempting to tie the cover on.
When I went to a chain and a shackle with pin and it unthreaded the pin.
Went to a lock on the chain and it pushed the can over and off the deck.
It finally went away.
Better fixins elsewhere, probably.

[DaviDC.]

I don't keep the bowl full of food; I only put out a handful when a cat is asking for it.
I brought the container inside so this wont happen again.