The Raccoons Are At It Again!

Two nights in a row I have had a raccoon coming into the house and eating the cat food.  Yesterday I woke up to a mess. Raccoons love to clean their food, and when they put cat food into the water bowl, it makes an absolute mess. It tracked muddy cat food prints everywhere.

I only wish mine would stay outside!

Last night I put the cat food up on the counter and slept with one ear listening for the raccoon to come in through the cat door.  Oh, and the gun sitting next to the back door.  I woke up twice and chased it out of the house but didn't have the time to get the gun ready...mostly because I was still half asleep. One the raccoon's third attempt to get it, I was finally able to get off a shot, but it ran off into the woods.  I only have a 22 caliber rifle, so it has to be a good shot to kill a raccoon.  

When I got up this morning, I found that it had tipped over the cat food storage container, but I'm not sure if it did that before I took the shot or if it came in again. I am betting on before because I would have heard it otherwise.

This big problem is that I am leaving early in the morning to go to North Carolina, and I don't want to leave a raccoon coming into my house for my mom to deal with...