An Unsettling Discovery

Something. Has been leaving gifts in our backyard. They are not small gifts. They are quite large. And they smell worse than they look.

Liz noticed these things in the far back yard, near the garden boxes. And I picked them up. But then we found one closer to the house.

The frequency was getting to a point where there was something new each morning. For a brief period of time, I wondered if someone was intentionally messing with us, and covertly bringing their dog into our yard to do their business. A bit of Googling later, it seems like we have some racoons in the area.

I guess it could be possums, but racoons seem more likely. The phrase “raccoon latrine” has now entered my vocabulary, and I have seen more images of scat that can no longer be unseen.

Turns out, raccoon poop is pretty serious stuff – and has the potential to carry roundworms. Did you know that the CDC has a dedicated page about Raccoon Latrines? And a “propane torch” is one of the methods for sanitizing an infected area?

While we’ve noticed this uptick in behavior in the yard… I’m happy to say that the last day or two, we haven’t found anything new in the morning. We were starting to get worried that our backyard was becoming a new bathroom… but so far, the cleanup (and a recent mowing) seems to have reset things.

I was on the verge of buying some motion lights, and even looking into motion-activated water sprinklers. But as of now, it’s disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Related:
A Photograph of Poop. And Poetry.
Shit Fountain
The Excrement Poem