The Babies

They're a problem almost every night. Knocking over a trash can, eating a trash can lid, climbing up on the roof to see if the ring tails left a hot dog somewhere, sleeping in the rain runoff spouts from the roof, breaking all the small branches off the trees when they climb up to sleep in safety, tipping over the bird baths to get a drink, and sticking a hand down the skunk hole to try and steal a hot dog and getting sprayed. After they eat their first two bowls of Kit & Kaboodle they go under the porch to sleep where they constantly whine, snarl, and fight with each other, right outside my window. Since they're parents no longer join them or apparently wish to hang around with them, I've decided it's time for some discipline. Every time snarling begins under the porch I go out and dump two pitchers of water down the cracks between the boards and soak them. When two of them are fighting and I walk out on the porch I can hear all the others scrambling to get away from them so they don't get wet. They do not like getting wet. I've read putting ammonia in the water will keep them away for extended periods. I'm not ready for that but they do push my buttons every night. The average life span of a raccoon in the wild is one to three years and a large percentage of their deaths are from starvation. Not an issue here.