Freewrite 688 - Rat Trap

We don’t have rats around here (though we did have mice for awhile), but I did catch a critter some would consider as bad as a rat in an unconventional trap. We have a large 96 gallon trashcan with a lid on it. I went out one day and dropped our usual bag of kitchen trash in it. As I was closing the lid, I noticed something moving in the can! It was a large raccoon! The can is next to a 4-foot chain link fence. The raccoon must have sat on the fence, opened the lid (it’s attached with a hinge), and climbed in. The problem was that there wasn’t enough trash for it to stand on to get out! So I tipped the can over until it was able to make its escape to a nearby bush. That happened two more times that summer! Not sure if it was the same one each time, but that was the only summer it happened.

However, last night a slightly larger critter had no problem getting to our trash (see Something Broke for why it was so tempting) - a very large black bear!! Haven’t seen one of those around here for a couple of years. Had quite a mess to clean up this morning. Guess I need a bigger trap!

https://steempeak.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-688-5-minute-freewrite-sunday-prompt-rat-trap