Ok, I've never had a racoon come to my house, but we used to feed them
on the Navy base.  But I did have a baby opossum get trapped in the cat
feeder on the front porch.  We had 20+ cats (yes, cats can have kittens
at 6 months of age, but that's another story) and since that's way too
many to keep inside we kept them outside.  We made a huge wooden feeder
(gravity style) that would hold an entire 20#'s of cat food.  I filled it
every day or so, on my way out the door to work.  One morning I awoke to
a loud scrabbling noise on the front porch.  There was the cutest little
opossum trapped inside the empty feeder.  About a dozen cats were trying
to get into the feeder to get the little darling.  I, of course, lifted
the lid and went to reach, bare handed, into the box.  Fortunatly my
country raised hubby pointed out the very large and long row of sharp
pointy teeth.  So we towted the entire feeder across the street, while
restraining the kitties, and let the little fur ball out.  (we watched
until he got a long way into the woods before letting the cats go off
again.)
 
What has this to do with ferrets?  Or raccoons for that matter?  Mostly
nothing, I just like the story and decided I would like to share it. :-)
 
Shelley
[Posted in FML issue 4500]