ugh. a couple of hours ago, the dogs went crazy in the backyard and we went outside to discover that they had cornered a big, fat and unfortunate raccoon and were giving it a working over. the raccoon was doing an ferocious job of defending itself, but it was clear that it was going to end badly. i couldn't do much beyond hollering and waiving my hands wildly in a mostly useless attempt at convincing the normally docile dogs that tearing a raccoon to bits was not really a great idea.

after a round of shaking the raccoon like a rag doll [ keep in mind this is a rag doll that's the size of a not-too-small dog ], mauja decided to drop it and play a little. the raccoon was in no mood for play and went after mauja with a vengeance. this suffiently freaked out cadence enough that she decided that maybe it was a good time to step away from the action. mauja then decides that maybe he should get a little breathing room and stepped back, giving the racoon just enough space to somehow climb up the fence and into the neighbor's tree.

we called animal control and the police and both said that they will not under any circumstances go anywhere near a wild, injured raccoon.

now, hours later, if you go in the backyard, you can hear a slowly dying raccoon, rasping and gurlging in the tree. i have no idea what to do. the humane thing would be to just put it out of its misery, but i haven't got a gun and i'm not about to climb the tree and do it in with a shovel.