My friend Mike took these pictures of his back yard being invaded. Guess this raccoon is on a diet---bird seed? At my house they still have an appetite for high-cholesterol fodder like bacon grease and steak fat, fresh out of the green bin!

 I've been battling it out with successive generations of the same raccoon family for 22 years and believe me, they have become just as technically savvy with garbage pillaging as our kids have with computers and iphones.

When we first moved into our house, all I had to do to protect the garbage from being violated was make sure the lid was on.  However, a couple of years later, the subsequent generation of raccoons figured out they merely had to knock the garbage can over in order to remove the lid easily and start feasting. It's really nice waking up the next morning  to rotten cucumbers, cat litter, dirty diapers and meat scraps covered with coffee grinds strewn all over the deck . On a few occasions, they even had the audacity to wash themselves off on the wet pool steps, leaving behind muddy paw prints!...but then I discovered  that bungee cords are useful for more than just fastening stuff to the roof rack.

Over the next several years, except for the few times I was either too lazy or too tired to bother 'locking-up' the trash pails, the coons were held at bay with the use of several bungee cords strategically wound over the garbage cans.

The war seemed to be over. It was peace in our time...

...until the emergence of... the 'Super-Coon'. Much like the 'Super-Orcs' from 'Lord of the Rings', the super-coon is bigger, faster, stronger and smarter than its forefathers. That sucker was somehow able to knock over the green bin and extract compostables by wedging the side of the bungee-tightened lid open! After spreading garbage all around the back yard, the nocturnal trouble-maker looked up with such an attitude as if to say, "I'll be back".

But, once again I was ready.

I now secure the tightly sealed containers to the side of the deck stairs and the garbage has gone undisturbed for the last few years. So, if you don't have a garage or a shed,  as long as the lid is tightened-down and the container is set up so it can't be knocked over, the garbage will most likely be impenetrable....

...at least until the next generation comes along!