Four legged Fiend

The other night as Brian and I were getting into bed, we couldn't ignore the sounds of someone, or something, walking on the roof above us.  Maybe it was branches hitting the house in the wind?  We peeked out the blinds....no wind.  Brian went downstairs and then outside and looked up at the roof, but couldn't see anything.  The sounds stopped for awhile after that and I quickly fell asleep.  A couple of hours later, about 2AM, I was awoken by the scraping and scratching.  I saw Brian was still awake, reading something on his phone, with the lamp on.  He was still up because the creature on the roof was SO LOUD.  I believe the racoon (or oppossum? or ocd squirrel?) was intent on dismantling the roof possibly with a three pronged garden tool. 

For lack of anything better to try I lumbered out of bed, opened the blinds, then opened the window.  I guess the sound startled the creature because it stopped clawing for a second.  I couldn't believe how completely helpless some good-for-nothing four legged fiend had rendered two college educated adults.  I had never wished so badly that we owned a bb gun as I did that night. 

Brian said, "Hey let me try something."  Lying in bed, he held out his phone, aiming it at the open window, and hit play on a youtube video of a red fox screaming.  The hilarity of my husband using youtube in the middle of the night to combat a nocturnal beast will stay with me for a long time.  The fox did emit a terrible sound, but not terrible enough to scare the varmint for long.  It was bound and determined to tear up the roof.  In frustration I slammed the window back down into the sill a few times.  Brian headed downstairs to the couch and I found my earplugs and we survived the rest of the night. 

So far our visitor has not returned, but we are ready for next time...we bought Brian a pair of earplugs.