Pepe 1, Humans 0

Just a little update on the Pepe situation.

Pepe is still king of Abbey Place.

With no movement on his part to eat the Kashi bars put in the trap Thursday, Angela did some research and discovered that raccoons have a sweet tooth and like marshmallows. (Hence, the pest control expert's desire for me to whip up a batch of Rice Krispie Treats). So Saturday we traipsed to Target, bought some marshmallows, and sweetened the pot so to speak. You can see above how I laid out a little trail of marshmallows and then put a few more in the back of the track thinking Pepe would scarf them down and go searching for more.

But no.

Monday evening the marshmallows were still there. Right where I'd placed them. The landlord called to check in (a surprise in itself) and suggested moving the trap or putting eggs in it. A) I don't know where to move it to exactly. The side yard isn't much bigger than the picture above shows. B) I'm not making Eggs Benedict for Pepe. He can just move along, which maybe he's done. Or so we thought...

This morning I peered through the living room window, on my tip toes, to see down to the yard and I couldn't find any marshmallows. Maybe something was trapped! But no, the trap wasn't sprung. So on my way out this morning I went to the back yard. And this is what I found:

Pepe, or some other mischievous yard creature (yes, we have back yard gnomes, the backyardigans, but they are usually lazy and don't leave their picnic table), had very nicely put all of the marshmallows into the cage for me.

Yep. All the marshmallows and the Kashi bars are now in the back of the cage. Not chewed on or eaten at all. So helpful.

I think Pepe is telling us to take our food and shove it. He doesn't need our help, nor does he want it, to get out of town.

So we'll see what happens tonight. I'll leave the food out there. We have the trap for 30 days and maybe, just maybe, that was Pepe's parting shot. Maybe we can have the basement entrances sealed up tight and say goodbye to our little raccoon adventure. Or maybe not.