"Pat" wrote in message
...
Raccoon. Look here http://www.urban-wildlife.com/adc.htm about 3/4 down
the page

I agree -- I have a similar problem with raccoons, who are incredibly smart
at finding ways to get food.

Since you know they're around, be especially careful with things like
outdoor refrigerators or pet food, because the 'coons will get into them.
You'll need a trap or need to hire a trapper to relocate the animal.

We have a raccoon who will come into the screened lanai through the cat
door, go to the small refrigerator, open it, and take out the open can of
catfood and finish it off. And it only comes on the infrequent times we
have accidentally left a can in the outdoor frig.

On another occasion I heard someone walking on my side porch, at 3 AM --
with a limp. Step, slide, step, slide. The raccoon had taken a plastic jug
of catfood accidentally left on the table, pulled it to the ground, and
taken it back to the cat door. That was the sliding sound I heard. The jug
was too big to go through the door, so the raccoon had pulled the mouth of
the jug to the cat door, opened it, and then sat outside, reaching through
the propped-open door to get the food out of the jug.