Triggered Traps and Monster Wreaths – Thoughts from December 13 and 17, 2025

December 13, 2025

For those of you who were waiting on an update to the trap in our yard, I have the first happening since we put it out and filled it with apple cores. To catch up, our outside cat, Archie, was having his food eaten by one of the animals in our backyard. It was most likely a raccoon, an opossum, or another neighborhood cat. We put a trap in the yard, hoping to capture said animal. What we would do with the animal was still up for debate.

I was leaving the house to go to work, and Patti and I saw that something had triggered the trap. The trapdoor had closed. Looking closer, I could see the plastic coat hanger was off on one side. There was an opening just big enough for the animal who triggered the trap to get out. My thoughts went back to when I first set up the trap. I thought the best thing to use would be zip ties. You may think I didn’t use them because I didn’t have any. You would be wrong. I have a vast assortment of zip ties in various sizes.

I had to wait several days to get back to the trap because I was going to work on my Monday. My Monday is Saturday. When I got back to the trap on my next day off, I put the zip ties in three places on the door. I tried to put them in corners where the animal couldn’t bite them off. With new apple cores inside the trap, I put it back near the opening under our porch. Whatever triggered it was stronger than a plastic coat hanger. They had climbed right out the small opening in the door and squeezed out like a hamster from its cage.

My next worry was that the animal would now stay away from the trap. Fooling them twice would be even more difficult. What if they learned to avoid the trap but still ate Archie’s food? If it was a raccoon, they are smart animals. Unlike many humans, they learn from their mistakes. We wouldn’t have to worry about relocating a raccoon because we blew our one chance to catch them. At the very least, maybe they would see Archie’s food as just another trap and stay away from it.

December 17, 2025

The past few years, Patti and I have done little decorating for Christmas. One reason is my atheism. Any religious decorations are out of the question. A manger scene will not decorate our home inside or out. Speaking of outside, Patti had a Stitch in a Santa hat. When you put it on a fence, it looked like Stitch was just hanging on the fence. She also had me put a bow on the door. Our neighbors far outshone us as far as decorations. One of our neighbors had a cat in a stocking and a giant Hello Kitty. Anything involving cats is good as far as we’re concerned.

Inside the house, we had more decorations. Patti bought a Christmas town that lit up. I knew she wouldn’t set it up, so I added batteries to it and put it where we could see it. We also bought a wreath monster from The Nightmare Before Christmas years ago. It hangs on the wall most of the year because I’m always in the mood to see things from one of my favorite movies. It’s the one thing that keeps me from abandoning Christmas all together. Anything that takes religion out American holidays puts a smile on my face. Santa, the Easter Bunny, and Jack Skellington help me do that.