Heather's family house in Carmel, NY has a little problem.

There's a particular raccoon that's found their cat-door as an easy entry into one of the best freebies in town. It's been a problem all winter, and during that time, it's snuck onto their dining room table, eaten entire avacados and even outsmarted Marc and his rifle.

You could say this raccoon thing has escalated into an all out war. And Sarah and I happily let ourselves get drafted.

Welcome to the battle.

This "cat door" is how the raccoon gets in the house. It's supposed to let only their pet "Alfie" in the door, but in a tragic case of wilderness identity-theft, the raccoons seems to have little difficulty breaking in.

Only tonight, the raccoon's path is rigged with a noose!

...which, when pulled, tips this bucket of kitty litter off a temporary shelf, and hanging the raccoon!
In case that doesn't work, we've left some yummy meat in this little jar...
which is rigged to this switch...
which will wake the raccoon hunter and hunteress (Marc and Heather)
...at which point, he will snip another trigger line...
which will close this trap door, preventing the little bastard from escaping!
   
This family heirloom has been converted into a raccoon-fighting machine!
Because when the raccoon gets inside and tips over the glass jar of yummy bacon lard, he'll get TRAPPED!
...but in case those three strategies don't work, we hope he'll try this specially-modified "have-a-heart" trap.

 

See what happened next.