Them Darn Raccoons

So the kids and I are enjoying our day off just lounging around at home. It was nice enough that the kids were able to hang out with their friends outside and play in this haze we are experiencing. Chloe was taking her nap and I was glad for it to be quiet so she could sleep and I could get a little studying in. I was well into my history 1700 book when I hear these screams of the neighbors son. The kids come running inside screaming "there is a raccoon in the neighbors tree and they are torturing it!!" Of course the post about my "wonderful" neighbors has not yet graced the pages of my blog for obvious reasons of having to live next door to them and trying to keep the peace. Lets just say my kids are not allowed over there and we have been kept awake late at night because of their extremely noisy exhaust on their cars. Anyway, the neighbors have all these teens that are in and out of their house for who knows what reasons because their 16 year old son no longer lives there...yes he moved in with his girlfriend. And I thought we lived Sandy not Kearns. Anyway again the teenagers are out there poking this poor raccoon that unfortunately made its way into the worst tree in the neighborhood. They were spraying it with water( it was only 35 degrees outside) poor thing and they were throwing lemons at it....yes I said lemons. I am on my way out there to yell at the kids when I see the mom and dad of the house on the deck encouraging their behavior to this poor animal. One of them then says "I am gonna knock it down and make it my pet!!" OK bubba!! My kids were sitting on the fence just watching. Hannah is an animal lover and she was freaking out by what they were doing to the poor thing. So I went inside to call animal control when the lady tells me that the owners of the house has to come get the trap and trap it themselves. I told the lady at animal control that the people whose house the raccoon is in are torturing it and they think its funny and want to keep it for a pet. The parents were even laughing at the poor creature as it made its way up the tree as it was getting poked. Late that night Hannah and her friend went out and threw crackers over the fence hoping it would come down and run away to a safe place. I felt so bad for it. Out of all the trees to pick to climb, it picked the worse one in the whole neighborhood.