The Coon Wars consist of many small skirmishes - some more dramatic than others. One day Mom and I were sitting at the dining room table playing crib, when we noticed a resident bandit was raiding the bird feeder - in broad daylight.
Mom grumbled about the nasty critter, and I knocked on the window a couple times. He just stared at me with his bright beady eyes, and continued to shovel the seeds down his greedy gullet.
The trusty B-B gun (thanks, Anson...) was leaning in the corner. Too close to resist. Mom got the gun, cocked it, and laid out the plan of shooting the raccoon right off his perch. I suggested that might not be very nice. Mom didn't care.
I grabbed the cat off the table and headed for the living room with her, telling mom that Birdie couldn't take that kind of carnage - and THA-WACK! I heard the BB hit the window. From the inside. The window was NOT open!
Mom was appalled. Then she was mad! "I'm gonna shoot him again, just for the h_ _ _ of it - RIGHT IN HIS BELLYBUTTON!"
Birdie and I managed to dissuade her.
The gun went back into the corner. And we finished the cribbage game. With the coon watching every move.
Sometime later, I actually took a look at the hole. And discovered that the double-paned window was only pierced on the inside, no hole in the outside pane.
So where did the BB go? It wasn't in the bottom of the window frame, between the glass.
I mentioned it to mom. "Oh," she says, very nonchalant, "it ricocheted back past me, I heard it go by my head."
Good Grief.
Then this morning, she told me she wanted to show me something, in the dining room. Pretty smug. And there it was...
If you look closely, the sorta star shape just above the fence post, is the BB hole in the glass.
The BB ended up about 8 feet east, on the cart where we have the CD player. Indoors.
"That Great Gramma is a little nutso. I'm telling the troops to keep an eye on the window, make sure it's CLOSED if they don't want to have their hide ventilated..."
Somehow, I'm sure this story is making the rounds of the coon tribes in the area. I hear snickering at night, through my open bedroom window.
Several bandits have sauntered by, just to check out that BB hole.
I'm an eyewitness to the damage! Not sure I'd leave the gun in the same place however!
ReplyDeleteThat is hysterical!! I love your story! But I have a different opinion for the future; leave the gun in a familiar place and hurry up and open the window for her! (still giggling)
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