Out of Control

 

The true story of how one racoon family grew so fat they needed specially built wheelchairs to get around the neighborhood.

It all began when I received a trail camera for a present.  I was excited to see what wildlife was passing through my backyard when I was sleeping.

I read the booklet and watched a YouTube video on how to set it up and get it going.  Then I attached it to a tree in the backyard.  Once that was ready to go, I put a handful of treats out in front of the camera.  Whatever it was, I would get to see them stop by for a late-night snack.

The following morning the pile of treats was gone but there were no images on the camera.  I removed it from the tree and went through all the settings again to make sure I had done it correctly.  It all looked good.

I reattached it to the tree and flipped it on.  I then replaced the pile of treats with a new pile and headed back into the house.  The following morning the treats were gone and again there was nothing captured on the camera.

This entire process was repeated every day throughout the week.  Treats were gone and no animals showed up on the night vision camera.

The next time I took everything apart I decided to recheck the batteries.  They were all dead.  I replaced them with new, fully charged ones and set everything all up again, placing yet another pile of treats out for the night.

Eventually, the amount of time I had the trail camera exceeded the time limit on returning it.  It was a failure, I was sure of it.  I had done everything per their instructions and it just wasn’t recording anything except for me walking away after turning the thing on.

Over the following weeks I gave up on the camera, but the racoons were still coming to my back door, pounding on it, wanting more treats.  I felt bad allowing them to believe this was going to be an on-going event, but what could I do?  I had gotten them hooked.  I just kept feeding them, setting out a little water dish and watching them show up now with their babies.

This entire thing had gotten out of control, and I expected the city would eventually come around asking me if I had a problem or if these were my pets.  I did snap a picture of them through the sliding glass door.