No trap is as deadly as the trap set for a ... raccoon?

From Oct. 18, 2009:

I was sitting in a sleazy dive in Shanghai when the man I was supposed to meet came in. He had a patch on one eye, a dirty sailor cap on his head and a long scar on his left cheek.

He recognized our prearranged signal — I was wearing big clown shoes — and sidled over to sit on the bar stool next to me. He stared at his ugly reflection in the mirror for a while and then muttered out of the side of his mouth. “Raccoons.”

“You buying or selling?”

“I just want to get rid of them. They crawl around in my pecan tree and make my dogs bark in the middle of the night.”

“It’ll cost you. Two dollars Sundays. The rest of the week, 75 cents.” He grumbled, but paid up.

This is what I told him: Soak rolledup towels in ammonia, put them in plastic bags and leave them around the area the raccoons frequent. You need to put them in bags or something because ammonia isn’t always so good for plants.

Or you could try dried coyote urine. Where can you get dried coyote urine? That’s going to cost you another $2.

This one sounds kind of mean, even for raccoons, but I am told it works: Whip up a batch of Rice Krispies treats laced with peanut butter and hot chili peppers and leave them in your yard.

There are some wildlife-removal services listed in the Yellow Pages, but be sure they are properly licensed. Raccoons are a protected species in Arizona, and you need a permit from the state Game and Fish Department to trap or kill one. Even if you are going to live-trap them, you should check with Game and Fish first.

The man with the scarred face grunted and went back to his sloe gin fizz.

I walked into the swirling fog, up $2.

At the bat cave at 40th Street and Camelback Road, we saw a bird kill a bat in midair. What kind of bird this might have been?

My best guess is that you saw a kestrel. It could have been some kind of small owl or a juvenile raptor of some kind, but I’m sticking with the kestrel.