orcishgamer: Careful with the puppy idea, those things used to eat my dog's feces every night. Really gross.
the_bard: Raccoons to eat the poop of the lawn and goats to eat the grass. Ah, there's the life...
Funny that someone else is having problems with these things, as I have a fat assed raccoon pulling shingles off of my roof, and sorry about your loss of food.
I first noticed this little beast a few months ago, after a tree limb fell on the roof from the neighbor's maple. It happened about 3:30 am, I went out, saw the limb had fallen, and figured I'd check closer in the am since it had not broken through the roof.
I wake up to some noise, go out, and there is this fat raccoon having a good old time hanging on/climbing up a gutter that was intact the night before; furthermore, the chubby little bastard pulled down the soffit underneath that section of gutter.
To make a long story shorter, spent a bit replacing everything, and lo and behold, scratching noises on the roof weeks later. It was him, not intimidated by my threats in the least, pulling shingles off of the roof! After 1200 bucks, I was in no mood for his shit, but found local animal control does not have traps, ordinances against the discharge of firearms (live in a suburb,) and neighbors who keep/feed their cats outside, so no way to really get rid of him.
Researched, and found they don't like coyote piss, but really don't want to be spreading this stuff around, as coyotes are in the area as well, and don't want them coming here for a hot date.
If you figure out a way to deal with this guy, let me know, otherwise it looks like I'm going to have to drop a couple hundred bucks on a humane trap, and putting him in the woods a couple of hours away.