This has been a summer teeming with critters, mostly because our community has declared war on coyotes and the local population of rabbits has just multiplied. After noting all the damage in our yard, I decided to live-trap and relocate the delinquents to a new home. So far this year, I have moved 9 rabbits and we have more to go.
Yesterday when I checked my trap, I noticed it was sprung, but empty and I went out to reset. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there was quite a pile of what appeared to be poop in the empty cage and it was not from a rabbit. As I washed out the cage and reset, I noticed that my grapevines over the patio had been pretty much stripped of grapes and there were a lot of empty grape skins under the vines.
So, on the theory that I had captured a raccoon rather than a rabbit, I looked more closely at the cage. The back door was slightly open and my makeshift closer (a twister seal from a loaf of bread) which had previously secured the door was missing. No rabbits had ever escaped, but they are not the brightest of critters.
So now, what I think happened, was that a raccoon family came to feast on the grapes. One of them entered the cage by mistake and got trapped. He was obviously scared and hence the poop. Somehow the group figured out the twister seal and removed it, letting my prisoner escape.
So, who says that life in the suburbs is dull — sometimes we have actual jail breaks.