So, some of you know that we've had a special friend living in our ceiling recently.  About a month ago, the ceiling tenant became pretty loud, so we called our landlord to let him know about the rodent problem.  Unbeknownst to us, he came and set out poison in the attic and shut the vents.  Wellll....this angered the ceiling tenant.  We didn't know Travis (landlord man) had shut the vents, so we thought the animal was mating or just really mad about something (perhaps forgot where she stashed some food?).  Turns out she was dying because she ate the poison and couldn't get out of the attic, which of course means she died up there.  Sad, but true.  So last Thursday I came home from class, and as I was opening the door, I noticed a few drops of blood on the brick next to the door.  Eww, I thought.  My eyes travelled up from the blood, and I saw a little foot peeking out from the porch ceiling.  Officially grossed out, I ran inside and screamed for Tommy and e-mailed Travis post haste.  

We just knew that Travis would get the rodent (Tommy thought it was a squirrel; I knew it had to be larger than that--so my guess was raccoon) out of the attic before we got back into town on Sunday afternoon (keep in mind that it's been about 90 degrees here, and the animal has been dead for four days), but NOOOOOO the raccoon was still in the ceiling when we got back from Evanston on Sunday night.  I immediately e-mailed Travis and promised him our first born or half lottery winnings--whichever comes first--if he would get out here and extract Mrs. Racoon.  He came last night and found the above image.  A 15-20 pound (Tommy's guess, and please note that the raccoon is probably a little bloated) MAMA RACCOON.

Let's all hope the babies escape through the hole in the ceiling.