Thanks to my BFF Janette who had her baby shower today, I had a good reason to take the day off and not go in to work at the bookstore like I normally do on Saturdays. Thanks again to my BFF for not dragging it out to an all day occasion and thus I was home by 2:00 and had the rest of the day to myself. So what did I do? My new favorite thing...yard work. For those of you with yards, you may think I am joking but I'm not. I really love being in my yard. So I spent 5 hours today pulling weeds and baby pecan trees and trimming hedges and raking leaves and mowing and all that good stuff. Needless to say, my arms are killing me...killing me. I did buy some good gloves so I am blister free :)
Anyways, I rewarded myself this evening by watching two movies and about an hour ago when I decided it was time to turn in for the night, I looked out my back door and thought I saw something move out there. So I went over and turned on the porch light and what do I see? A possum. Just sitting there blinded by the light. A POSSUM!!! What was I to do? How was I to proceed? I had to get him off my porch so I pounded on the door in the hopes that I would startle him. Nope. He just sat there completely unfazed. I couldn't go out there. Those things are mean. So I opened the door a crack, stuck my nose out and yelled "Go away!" real quick and then slammed the door shut. He turned a fraction in my direction. Seriously! These things aren't afraid of anything! So I did it again and what does the stupid thing do? It crawls down the space where the tree comes out of the deck. So now I have a possum that lives under my deck. What on earth am I supposed to do now? The way I see it I have three options and I don't like any of them:
Option 1: Poison it. If I do this, it will eat the poison, go under the deck, die, and then stink, therefore making this not an option.
Option 2: Set a trap. If I do this, it will get caught in the trap and die...hopefully. If it doesn't die, it will crawl back under the deck and die of injuries. If it does die in the trap, then I have to dispose of it therefore making this not an option.
Option 3: Just let it be. If I do this, there will always be a possum under my deck and then it will have little possum babies that will always live under my deck too therefore making this not an option.
Why can't it live in someone else's yard? The people that live behind me have this huge shed and lots of junk in their yard that the possum can hide under. I'm sure there are lots of backyards with lots of dark hiding places. Why did it choose my yard? *shudder* What am I going to do?
7 comments:
I laughed out loud when I read this! We had possums in our yard all the time growing up . . . they would run along our fence line and drive our dog crazy. Hey there's another option . . . I can let you borrow Dulce for a night ~ she may scare the silly thing away into someone else's yard like you wish. Oh the joys of yard work! Have fun keeping an eye on your new porch friend!
I really feel your pain because we had snakes (garter snakes, but they were big and black and creepy) that completely freaked me out. I was against the really evil ways of getting rid of them, so I studied and found the best way to keep them away is keep the grass short.
Anyway, so, feeling your pain the way I do (because things in your yard that creep you out really suck) I looked up some ways to get rid of possums.
The two suggestions I found that seem most likely are eliminating food sources (they'll eat anything, really) or a cleaver trick using ammonia. The ammonia method said to fill a coffee can with ammonia, put a rag in with the end hanging out of the can (acting like a wick to diffuse the scent) and put the cans wherever the possums hang out. It said it should work and that mothballs can help too. Good luck.
Possums are dis-gust-ing. I love that you told it to go away . . . twice. :) I'm just impressed you were able to open the door at all. I wouldn't have been able to make it that far.
I hit a possum with my car once. It was a traumatic experience, one that will haunt me forever...not because I killed a possum, but because it's an eerie feeling hitting something living with your car. Dumb thing should not have crossed the road in front of me on 1382!!!
I too love yard work. It's so much harder with kids and no fence though.
You could try calling animal control and see if they have a suggestion. Sometimes they can trap it and dispose of it (in some woods or something) without you having to mess with it...for a fee though.
Oh, I saw another friend of mine in Dallas who had Skunks (mama and babies) living under her deck...solution - don't have a deck!
Word Verification: jyggj - the word that comes out of your mouth after having an encounter with a possum.
We had a possum experience in Matt's engine at my mom's house in Kentucky. We even have pictures. We sprayed it with the hose till it went away, but that probably isn't a good solution for you. I would try Matt's ammonia idea. Sounds good to me.
I think I would enjoy yard work more if I didn't feel guilty about all the school work I was not doing. Oh, and if it made our crappy, uneven, stupid yard look better, which it doesn't.
Oh yeah, forgot about that. We had driven to Kentucky to visit Em's mother. The next morning I popped the hood to put in some more washer fluid and the baby possum was looking out at me. A bit creepy.
When you run out of things to do in your yard, you are always more than welcome to come work in mine!
word verification: wwndsfvg meaning, "for true friends, the gate is always open"
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