Heat? What heat?

Sweat was stinging my eyes as I walked away from the grave. Gravedigging. Just another chore that has to be taken care of on the farm. Judge, jury and executioners too are jobs needing to be done. The raccoon had been trapped sometime in the night out in the far back woods along the creek behind the house. We find holes dug under the fence every time we venture out there. Even after we plug up the holes with whatever is at hand, usually fallen branches and limbs from the hundreds of trees all around us, the nocturnal marauders pull them out or push them aside and canvass our property. Raccoons are fierce, smart and bold predators. We have lost chickens in broad daylight when we are home on the weekends. We have lost a rooster (not a big loss) and one of our 10 Barred Rock hens. This is a loss screaming for vengence. The barred rocks aren't even mature yet. We've had them for nearly 5 months we expect them to start laying any day now. Adding to the raccoons crimes, I was bitten by a tick after walking out to check the trap. We baited the trap with part of a chicken back. These and other parts are kept in the freezer for the next time we make stock. Even a small piece is enough to attrack the greedy killers. Saturday we went to check the trap and found the hissing snarling beast. Now we have a problem we have to get rid of it. After discussing options we come up with 3 methods. One is to release it. We could drive out to an area far from any houses and near a creek so the raccoon would have shot at survival, and release it. This is unfortunately illegal and it might create a pest problem for someone else. So that one was dismissed. Option 2 was to shoot it. We have a rifle now, but haven't used it and I have only fired BB guns and the little .22 rifles at carnivals. So I really need some practise before I go after the varmint with guns blazing. So I chose to use carbon monoxide. We put the trap into a large trash can on its side and then taped a plastic trash bag to the opening, sealing it. Next I cut a small hole in the closed end of the bag. The hole was taped to some cardboard that was wrapped around some aluminum foil that covered the end of the exhaust pipe of my truck. The truck was started, in 20 minutes the deed was done. The creature was probably dead in 10 minutes but we wanted to be SURE. It was late in the day Saturday so we waited until Sunday to bury it.