Who's Living in our Chimney?

Look closely - can you see the raccoon popping its face out of the chimney? Before we grabbed the camera, we couldn't see its face, only its arms and hands. It stretched its hands and was opening and closing one of its paws like it was waving. It waved 4 to 5 times in a row, so cute!

Peeking at us to see if we're still watching it:

We don't use our fireplace, it was boarded up after our power was out for 7 days during the windstorm in 2006 and it didn't provide any heat! We'll replace the wood burning fireplace with a gas one once the remodel is done. I tell my husband we need to call someone and have the raccoons (we shined a flashlight down the chimney and saw 2 more after this one left) removed. He says that the raccoons will now look for a new home because they don't like it when their hideout has been discovered. Hmmmmmm, is that too good to be true? I laughed, but perhaps he is right =)

http://www.aaanimalcontrol.com/Professional-Trapper/howtogetridofraccoons.htm