Lance,

I think you're overblowing the danger. They are primarily scavengers and feed on everything from grasshoppers to field mice to road kills. He or she certainly won't be eating any fish unless they float up dead. I really doubt if your fat lab or kids wold be in danger.

If you don't want to use an exterminator, trap it, or shoot it then there is not much you can do. It may just go away once the weather changes or end up as a road kill. They have a hard life and don't really live that long anyway.

I wouldn't mind seeing one around my place. They are indeed wily and smart and an extremely adaptable animal. It would be fasinating to observe one.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.