Bandits!

It was a dark and stormy night. Okay - it wasn't stormy, but it was night, just after dusk. The normally quiet backyard was disturbed by crashes and rattling fences. Looking closely, the bird feeders that usually hung from the shepherd's hook were missing. In fact, the shepherd's hook was bent at a forty-five degree angle. Who were the culprits? Most likely - raccoons.

A couple of times a week, raccoons will waddle around the yard after dark, checking out what's left on the ground or in the one feeder on the fenceline. After months of this, someone got curious and bold and figured out how to climb the shepherd's hook. But being the fatty-boombaladdies that they are, one particularly adventurous raccoon's weight bent over the metal pole and let it unhook the feeders.

After I charged out of the house, chasing the thieves away, I located the feeders - one in the garden right by the shepherd's hook, but the other a good 20 feet away - and empty, of course. Bandits! Thieves!

So now, I bring the feeders in each night at dark, and take them back out in the morning. What I do for the birds!