‘The most Toronto thing that’s ever happened’
Raccoons invade woman’s kitchen and one refuses to leave until he gets fed
It was a night like any other when the raccoons made their move.
Toronto resident Jenny Serwylo had enjoyed a quiet evening at home Tuesday and had gone to bed when she was startled awake by noises coming from her kitchen.
The culprit? Three raccoons had broken through her window screen.
The target? Her bread.
Leaping into action with a broom, Serwylo made enough of a commotion that two of the bandits decided the goods weren’t worth it.
But the third simply stared at her from behind her toaster oven, defiantly gnawing on her English muffins.
“He was like, ‘I’m eating here, get out of
here,’ ” Serwylo said. Eventually, Serwylo called 311, hoping the city would be able to give her some advice. They told her to try to find a 24-hour wildliferemoval company. She couldn’t get through to any. Serwylo’s standoff lasted over half-anhour, she said. “I was growling at him and hissing at him, trying to scare him out, but he wasn’t having any of it.”
Occasionally, he would even grab the broom handle she was pointing at him and “yank it really hard,” she said.
Finally, after he had eaten literally all the bread in her house, the last holdout got up and calmly walked back through her window, which she quickly locked. That didn’t stop the group from spending the next two hours scratching to get back in. “Hopefully, my locks hold,” Serwylo said.
The experience was “hilarious,” she said, if also a little scary. “It was the most Toronto thing that’s ever happened.”
Now, she gets to clean up the mess in her kitchen — no small task, considering raccoon poop can carry infections that can cause serious illness, blindness and — while rare — death. Toronto Animal Services spokesperson Bruce Hawkins told the Star the situation was “uncommon,” and to contact a private wildlife company if a healthy animal gets in your home. (Animal Services only deals with sick and injured wildlife). But the problem is ev- idently common enough that the city created a step-by-step guide to deal with home-invading raccoons:
Step 1: Secure the perimeter. “If you think you know where the animals get in, check to see if this entrance is in use,” the city says, by sprinkling flour and looking for footprints, or stuffing paper in the opening to see if it’s removed.
Step 2: Make your home “unlivable” by hanging ammoniasoaked rags, blasting the radio, and filling your house with bright lights.
Step 3: Check that the bandits are really gone. Don’t close off openings before conducting a thorough search, unless you’re fond of the smell of dead raccoons in your walls.
Step 4: Prevent re-entry. Block holes with sheet metal, repair siding, cover air vents, cap chimneys, trim overhanging tree branches and remove unused TV towers.
Another tip: “Leave behind ammonia or bleach to discourage the raccoons in their search for another opening back into their old den,” the city says.
Of course, this guide assumes the offender isn’t staring you in the face, defiantly eating your bread.
As for Serwylo: “I’m going to go bleach my apartment now.”
“Hopefully, my locks hold.” JENNY SERWYLO RACCOON WRANGLER