Late night visitor.....
William81
Member Posts: 25,343 ✭✭✭✭
Up late last night.....could not get to sleep so was eyeing things on the auction side and looking at the talk boards in between. About 1 I checked the yard to see if Martha was in one of her shelters or out mousing. After looking around the back yard I went to the front door and turned on the porch light.
And there he was.......A big old possum right on the door stoop. So I banged on the door which usually makes them run off. This guy just looked up at me and turned around and walked about 3 feet to Martha's bowl and took a drink and then started to nibble on some food that had fallen out near her food bowl. So I whipped the door open and Hissed at it.... It looked me in the eye and ran right towards me and turned into Martha'a little shelter... Well Crap
So I headed in the house and turned off the light thinking it would just go away. I waited about 10 minutes and headed out again.. I kicked Martha's shelter and the darn thing was still in there...it made a noise somewhere between a hiss and growl. I grabbed the back of the shelter and yanked it from under the table it sits under and tossed it across the porch....More noise, but it stayed inside. I picked it up shook it with the opening aimed at the ground....a lot more noise but it was hanging on. I finally rolled it across the porch and the possum finally walked out. He eyed me and waddled away, a little unstable on his feet and was gone....
I look up in the tree next to the porch and there was Martha watching the whole thing...I ended the evening sitting on the porch with her and some treats before crashing out.
I Love living in the country.....
Comments
Great story William.
Same things around here but with Racoons.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
Had a possum scrounging around under the bird feeder last night outside the kitchen window. Normally I leave them alone but have had a few that were troublesome that needed to be dealt with. One took to gnawing on my steps to the sunporch. I opened the door and hissed and he just looked at me. I stomped on the top step and got a hiss and a dirty look out of him before he went back to chewing on the step. I had my trusty RWS mod 48 handy that I use to thin the red squirrel population down so I popped him square in the forehead almost point blank with an 1100fps pointed pellet. He flopped down and had no movement so I figured he was a goner. Went to get a pair of gloves to dispose of him and when I came back he was gone. I stepped out on the porch and saw him 30ft away kind of staggering but making good time. Went and grabbed my trusty 17hmr but by the time I got back he had made the woodline and disappeared. They must have an awfully hard head because that gun and pellet combo has put a pellet though a headshot red squirrels body lengthwise and come out his butt. Bob
I start out by educating them with rule # 177. If they don't learn, I go to rule # 22.
Your cat has rented out the shelter
Some nice shank you let go and they do HISSSS and "growl" some. Possum ain't just for breakfast anymore!😝
Our beagles treed one in our apple tree one night about 1AM. We lived in town at the time, so no firearms involved. I made a catch pole with a piece of pipe and some rope, drug and it out of the tree. The wife refused to let me dispatch it, and told me to take it out of town and dump it, so into a box it went. I drove it out about 5 miles and turned the box over to let it go. It hissed and had pooped in the box, so I just dumped everything into the ditch. I told my wife that next time, the job was hers!
LOL at least you won the battle
we have them wonder thru often some even try and take up house keeping helping the cats eat there food or hiding in one of the old sheds . if caught in the open they will slowly just walk away . getting in a hurry does not seem like a priority for them
I use to just S.S.S . but over time I just chase them off or relocate them to keep my wife happy in a box or cage down the road a few miles by a creek and let them go . I have lost track of how many I just grab there tail and pull them out of the dog / cat shelters or from under tables in the out buildings or even while there eating . younger ones are a lot easier . only one out of dozens and dozens I have grabbed tried to actually bite me . but it got stuck in a will and I had a hard time pulling it out and it was good and mad by the time I got it out most all of them just growl/ hiss some play the "dead" card . if its a older bigger one I will put on a pair of work gloves just in case as was the case on the one that tried to bite me .
some years ago we had one take up house keeping in a 55 gallon barrel we have the top cut off of to put shovels rakes and assorted yard tools in .. well it had a litter of young ones and wife said no way let it be / oh how we knew I did pull it out of the barrel and my wife checked its pouch and found the baby's all sung and warm in moms pouch .
We get em all! Wife stepped out of our sliding patio door and thought Oh, another ferrel cat is under our wood step! It was a skunk🤣
Must have been Possum night, had a big one on the back porch last night.
Wife had set a tray that comes from the grocery store, chicken in the tray, pad underneath to catch the blood.
Ole fellow was chewing it to bits. Biggun too. We had dinner scraps on the table, needless to say he had a feast.
We treat possum pretty good, had on for an indoor pet for a while.
Hicoon's not so lucky.
I welcome possums around our house. They don’t seem to do any harm. Besides, studies show they eat up to 5500 ticks per season. That’s lot of ticks that won’t be getting on me and my kids!
I was ready to invite opossums to my property for a tick fest, but I checked up on it & found conflicting accounts.
https://forfoxsakewildlife.com/2021/07/29/oops-opossums-dont-actually-eat-ticks/
June used to feed so many animals in our back yard you never knew what was going to show up. There was always possums though no matter what other animals were there it didn't bother them.
I don't think there's anybody in the world that loved animals more than she did. It didn't matter what it was. She was like that from the time we were kids back in Tennessee.
My wife's uncle loved baked possum..he would knock deer meat off the table trying to get to it. .
Yea, I read some of the conflicting reports as well. Others, however, indicated that the possums don’t really seek out the ticks as a food source, but rather consume a heap of them within the act of grooming themselves. Apparently, they are really good at that, despite their scraggly appearance. Whether the numbers hold up or not in real life, I don’t know. However, if the critters are mopping up and disposing of ANY of the ticks, they’re still welcome in my yard.
Smitty
I am truly sorry for the loss of your wife , she was a special lady . RIP June
in so many ways she reminds me of my wife .
my wife is right there when it comes to animals , she trys to make buddy's ( and usually does ) with all the animals that wonder thru our place ( think Elle May from the hillbillys show maybe that's why we have 13 or 14 cats LOL 3 dogs and assorted ducks chickens geese .
late last fall she seen a couple deer feeding on a crabapple tree we let grow up she started taking the apples from the two we do eat the apples from and leaving piles for the deer . I reminder her they get scared they would stop a mud hole in her ***
I have to wonder her having a soft spot for dumb animal's maybe that why she took me in 😲
she was born in Ohio but all her family were from KY around the Harlin area
short story when my wife to be and I were dating . one day driving on the back roads she ran over a opossum she pulled over started crying . I was totally lost as to why , whats wrong ? . she was heart broken she had killed it even though it ran in front of her no time to to react she had never hit or killed any thing . but her dad ( and I sure her mom did also ) butchered pigs chickens rabbits all the normal meat sources that's why it shocked me when she was crying
22 behind the door and walking stick/club just outside door--just in case the dog that's supposed to be watching for such critters isn't paying attention. Used to have a possum or * on the deck 2-3 times per week. Now I just find the remains where ever dog got tired of mauling it.