Strange things were happening in the HOA#1 Clubhouse. The phone and computer lines were getting disconnected, and the cooks were sure that someone was stealing food at night. They posted signs in the kitchen and in the Roadrunner Grill stating “We know that you are stealing food. When you are caught, you will be prosecuted”. The patrol was put on alert to be watching for anyone around the clubhouse during late-night hours. This all came to my attention when I was called in to identify a calling card (scat) left in the middle of the operations manager’s desk. The scat and some footprints led me to believe that the culprit was Bassariscus astusus, (from bassar (fox), isc (little), and astut (cunning)). Of course it wasn’t a cunning little fox but it was a clever little mammal called a Ring-tailed cat. Not really a cat, but as with raccoons and coati mundis, ringtails are members of the Procyonidae (raccoon) family. They were called miner’s cats by early prospectors who found them easy to tame and useful rodent control in their mines and dwellings. Catlike in build, the ringtail is nocturnal, and hunts small rodents and insects. It also eats plant matter. It builds a den among rocks, in tree hollows, in houses or, in this case, the clubhouse, where it found a convenient source of food and water and lived in the crawl space between the dining room and the pro shop downstairs. The Ringtail is also the official Arizona State Mammal.
As I was going to be gone for several weeks, I left a live trap with the kitchen staff and told them as soon as they caught the ringtail they should call one of my volunteers who would then release it in a safe area away from the clubhouse. Four weeks later when I returned, I found that the ringtail had not been captured. When I questioned the kitchen staff I discovered that they had set the trap each evening with a piece of bacon and each morning the bacon was gone and the trap was sprung and empty. The problem was that they had not set the trap properly so each night the ringtail had a nice bacon dinner, and after the trap was sprung it simply pushed the door open and walked out. I reset the trap that night and the next morning we had the clubhouse ghost, which we named Rosie.
The Ghost
So, if you have if you have strange noises in your attic, it may be a ringtail, or a ghost. Give me a call.
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