One Less Chicken Killer

One old lady, out in the freezing cold, wearing nothing but her night clothes, with no glasses, shivering and barely awake, does not make for a good scenario. My eye opening experience this morning at day break, ended up with less than perfect results. Three dead chickens. Well, two bodies, for sure. A third body, evidently totally devoured. Only feathers remain of it. Three dogs running around the hen house frantically. Only after circling the pond and surrounding property,did they decide the culprit was still hid away in the hen house/ tractor shed. I hear a loud noise in the adjoining shed, only to find the yard dog had treed a raccoon up in a tight corner of the tractor shed in it's attempt to get away. Hopefully, Bear would keep him there until I could get back to the house, awaken Pop, get him dressed and awake enough to shoot the gun. Using guns are not my first and foremost favorite hobby, therefore,I'm out of practice. I'd rather Pop did the shooting, if and when it comes to that. No coffee in him yet, so that speaks volumes. Rhonda will tell you that he is definitely not at his best for any task, with no coffee, much less for shooting a gun. Nevertheless, Pop tries frantically to get a sight of the raccoon in the scope, but without glasses, that was futile. He shoots a hole or two in the roof of the shed and maybe one in the raccoon, and the raccoon looses his grip, and falls to the outside pen. That's where we have our extra lumber and metal stored. We think the raccoon is still under the tin, too frightened or injured to come out. Back to the house for coffee and glasses,we try again. We must now bring out Ole Rose to lift the tin, hopefully, to finish him off, if he's still there. I know there are rules and regulations about killing most varmints anymore, but it is my understanding that if it is caught in the act of destroying your property or livestock, killing it is allowed. At least we now know, it is a raccoon. I have found the entry hole, over our newly installed door, an repaired it.We'll post an update as to our results, as soon as we make another attempt to settle this case.................Pop managed to toss some of the metal sheeting aside, exposing the 20 pound raccoon who was growling furiously, possibly knowing that he was caught and his demise was imminent. We have a couple of neighbors who collect and use hides of various animals, so hopefully some good will come from his remains, even if he did cost me 5 or more chickens over this last year..... We lost one of our beautiful white Silkie hens that was laying good, a Rhode Island Red hen that had escaped from a hawk last year with only slight damage to one of her wings, and a small black bantam hen that sang the prettiest songs.