So first post on here and it's a fun one!
I have found a new use for our cars. They're great for catching small to medium sized animals.
I was on my way home from a 6.5 hour drive, it was around 12:30 am on back roads and a raccoon ran out in front of me.
I hit the brakes and tried to swerve to avoid it and came close, but still managed to hit it. I figured it had gone off to the side or under the car as I didn't see it in my mirrors so I kept driving. 15 minutes to home.
When I got home, I went to assess the damage. I looked at the front of the car and saw 2 feet sticking out from under the grill on the right side of the car. 'Great!' I thought sarcastically. I reached down and grabbed the feet to see how wedged in the dead raccoon was. Then, to my surprise, the feet began to wiggle and kick, slowly. IT wasn't dead!
It had hit the bottom of the grill, which cushioned its impact. The grill had pivoted open, the raccoon slid in and lightly hit the radiator, and the grill had pivoted back to about where it should be, thus acting like a trap.
'Oh man' I thought as I looked at my gf, 'It's slowly dying and stuck in my car'. NOPE!!! I went to get tools to take the front clip off and to call my insurance agent. I let them know that I'd be taking the front of the car off to get a live raccoon out. They told me to call the police to see if they could get a hold of the SPCA. I did so and the SPCA was dispatched.
SPCA arrived on scene and got out this big claw looking thing. I was so tired at this point that I really didn't feel like taking the whole front of the car apart so I just un-clipped the grill as much as I could by pushing it in a bit at the top and then pulled it forward, hinging on the bottom clips that were still attached. We tried to get the raccoon with the claw, but at this point it was fully back to consciousness and coming out of shock and was PISSED and snarling. It did NOT want to leave it's newly found, comfortable spot in the front of my car. They went and got one of those loop on the end of a pole things.
We got the raccoon out and it was safely caged in a proper cage, instead of the front of my car, and taken away by the SPCA.
Pics or it didn't happen

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