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]