Loved this! For a while we had racoons coming in our cat-door to eat catfood in the middle of the night. My husband laces the food with cayenne one time and we had a huge mess in the morning of strewn food and spilled water bowl where they’d tried to wash it off. We started locking the cat-door before we went to bed but then they’d come in at 7 pm, cheeky rascals.
Ultimately the only thing that worked was getting a dog. Once that happened, they never ventured into the house again. The mental image of raccons floating on their backs in your pond like otters is one that I will long cherish and chuckle at. Thanks for the laugh!