A long while back I blogged about all the wildlife that has decided to visit us in this house. Well its happened again and I swear its always us, I don't hear about everyone else having wildlife entering their domain at least not this many animals. We've had a rabbit in the egress window well, a rabbit fall through the insulation of the basement ceiling (I have a witness to that, not joking), a stubborn snake and very large, sneaky bull frog that both wouldn't leave the garage until I pulled every last item out. We had a mouse that thankfully the cat killed and brought to my bedside, not thankful for that. We have and always will have bats in our garage attic (I don't even bother to get rid of them, they do no harm). We had a groundhog mom and babies that lived under our deck for years and she just kept having babies until finally she was trapped and removed!
So tonight I'm looking forward to getting my house cleaned up after the birthday parties and then watching the Bachelor. Brian had to work really late and all he wanted to do was eat and watch the Wings. But no, he pulls up into the driveway and comes into the house to tell me there is a very large possum sleeping on top of the open can of garbage. I kind of think he's joking so I go outside and there it is, the largest possum I've ever seen sitting on top of the very full garbage. Tomorrow is garbage day and we had two parties here this weekend so jackpot for the possum. Brian and I each grab a hockey stick and prepare to nudge him out of the garbage and out of the garage. He starts to move out of the garbage can and slides to the floor but doesn't run out of the garage, no he runs between the shelf and the wall, wedges himself into a tiny spot, apparently he's slimmer than he looks. So I proceed to move all the crap in front of the shelf, lawn mower, birdseed, sandbags, etc. Then I wedge the shelf out from the wall and a lot of stuff falls off the shelf and behind it onto the floor, that scares the shit (literally out of the possum) and he burrows himself underneath the shelf because I didn't know this until now but the bottom shelf isn't at the very bottom there is about 3 inches of space but there's a panel in the front so it looks like it does. Perfect hiding spot, there's nothing we can do so I get some birthday cake and celery, seems like a balanced diet for a possum. I put it next to him, he sniffs a bit but is too scared to eat.
Brian and I decide that if he does come out he's going to run into a new hiding spot so we blockade the space between the shelf and the wall and we put the trash can in front of the stairs going into the house. Then Brian stands with the hockey stick while I go over and move the shelf all the way out angling it so we can see Mr. Possum. Then Brian uses hockey stick to pull him out. I use my hockey stick to push him forward. Initally I felt kind of bad that we were torturing him but when I went to move the shelf he poked his head out and started opening and closing his mouth showing me his gnarly teeth. That's when I decided he was ugly, annoying and ruining my Monday night! All sympathy went away. He started moving and we got excited but then he picked up speed and ran the wrong way, toward the house and behind the trash can and underneath the wooden stairs. I start cursing that we are so stupid for not blocking that space but its seriously not a big space, smaller than a box of Kleenex so I really thought this huge fat possum wouldn't even fit. But yes he did and that is where he is now.
We called the neighbors but they aren't home, they have a live trap that we've used 3 times now to extricate wildlife from our home. Brian and I both decided tonight is the night we get our own trap. So he went off to Meijers and just texted me that Meijers has no traps, Lowe's does but they are closed so take the food away so we can starve him until we get a trap. Now his cake is inside, the extra trash bag is in the laundry room sink and I bungee corded the trash can closed.
We figured it all out, yesterday we had the garage door open all afternoon and evening because family was coming over for Addison's party and then staying for the Super Bowl. I didn't close the garage until 9pm at night. This morning when I took the kids to school I noticed that parsley, onions and banana peels were all over the floor next to the garbage can and even behind the recycle bins. I didn't have time to clean it up so I waited until after school and scooped it all up and threw it on top of the trash. I never looked closely at the trash can except I noticed the trash bag was all tilted and there was ripped up paper falling out of the bag and down into the can itself (the trash bags are way smaller than the trash can so there's a lot of empty space around the bag itself. So the entire time I'm sweeping up trash and cleaning up the recycling that fat possum is sleeping in the garbage can!
But by 9pm when Brian arrived home he had decided to wake up, come to the top of the garbage and have himself some dinner. And now he's found himself a nice little warm house under the garage stairs with a giant food source right outside his door. Lowe's opens at 6am so we'll be there to buy a trap and meanwhile I hope he does NOT find a way into the house.
To be continued.....
 |
| Mr. Possum, Monday night wasted |
 |
| Starting to exit |
 |
| Possum Dinner |
 |
| Can you find Mr. Possum behind the shelf? |
 |
| Possum Poo Poo |
No comments:
Post a Comment