After the events of this weekend, I am beginning to feel like I live in a zoo!

It all started Friday night when my daughter spotted a young raccoon hanging out by the birdfeeder. We watched it meander across the front yard looking half drunk. About half an hour later we noticed it was at the edge of the pond that is in the alcove outside my kitchen bay window. The raccoon very carefully balanced itself on a rock and leaned over to get a drink out of the pond, when suddenly, it fell right in the pond, head first.

Saturday morning, we noticed this same raccoon hanging out on the back steps. It was not one bit afraid of us as it let me get really close for a picture opportunity. My husband decided that it shouldn’t really be near the house and started to lure this raccoon out to the woods. Have you ever heard a raccoon? Oh my! They make the funniest little noise and my husband perfected it pretty quickly. Here was husband walking towards the woods calling the raccoon like a scene out of the Pied Piper or “Are You My Mother?”

The raccoon headed toward my flower bed and decided to get comfy. We have a spare rabbit hutch and the goal was to get “Stripes Jr.” into the hutch. We decided to lure it towards the hutch with a peanut butter sandwich. It’s too bad these animals really are dangerous, because it is so darn cute. Here is my first ever YouTube video of Stripes Jr. eating peanut butter (and if you listen closely, you’ll hear my voice at the end).

We did end up luring it to the hutch and my husband got it into the hutch. The little guy has been hanging out in there for the last day and we will most likely release it way off in the woods away from the house. The girls are concerned if we take it to Animal Control that it will be no longer.

Later in the day we went into Petsmart for rabbit food and spent at least an hour checking out the cats and dogs brought over by the local shelters. Somewhere along the way, while I was checking out the Chow, my husband fell in love with a black lab named Raven. Now, we already have a Rhodesian Ridgeback, 2 cats, a rabbit, and a raccoon in captivity - do we need another animal? NO! We walked out of the store with rabbit food, and no additional pets. I was in the clear. Or so I thought.

This morning my husband headed off to run a few errands and somehow managed to end up back at Petsmart. He even took Raven for a walk. Talk about a sucker! He called from the store and let me know how much he liked this dog and I stuck to my guns. The kids found out about the second visit to the dog and all four of them (hubby & 3 kiddos) have been begging me to change my mind all afternoon.

Somehow I just got completely over-ridden and they called back the organization that has Raven. It looks like we will have another new addition to the zoo tomorrow!