Critter in my yard

Sean Wright

Member
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902
Location
WNY, Buffalo Area
About 2 weeks ago, my wife told me that she saw a "woodchuck" running around our yard and across our deck. She felt it might be taking up residence under our deck. Needless to say, she didn't care for that idea.....

I live in a suburb of Buffalo, and have a smaller back yard. If I was out in the country I would give serious consideration to just shooting it, but thats unfortunatly not an option in my neighborhood or township.:doh:

So I set my live trap, threw in some fruit, and left it. I had no takers for about a week, and no spotting of the "woodchuck". Then when cutting the grass, I noticed that something had dug under the fence into my yard. So I set up the trap there and left it. A few days later, I discovered that I had caught a small possum in the trap. My wife insists that the possum was not the critter that she saw....... I relocated it, out in the country down the road from her parents' home. As you can see in the picture it was not too happy to be in the trap. I can't imagine why:D

There haven't been any more "woodchuck" sightings since the possum was relocated, so I guess we'll see.....
 

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We've got quite a few of them around here. Several years ago, at a previous house a few miles away, I found a baby possum on the rail of my back porch...playing possum. Dunno why, but I decided to pet it to see what it'd do. (I'm a pushover for baby animals.) Although it had a very rough-looking coat, much to my surprise the fur was baby-soft and silky. It seemed to like very gentle pets with a single finger on the back of its head.
 
But they're so cuuuute! ;) We had a possum in the chicken coop a number of years ago, but since there were no chickens, only worthless cats, I did not shoot him. That was at the behest of my daughters of course, who during their entire lives have called on me to remove all sorts of animal life, from little bugs up to squirrels, possums, etc. Of course, I am not supposed to kill anything. I am supposed to relocate it, and that includes the spiders! I make them take care of their own bugs now. If it has fur or scales, I take care of it.

Oh and the possum? He got a free ride, eating cat food with the cats until he crossed the road a little too slowly one night - and it was not me who did the deed! Our last worthless cat moved across the road a couple of years ago to the neighbor's house, since all we fed her was dry food. The neighbor puts out wet food, so our hospitality was spurned in favor of easy living. :dunno: Now no one has to supply cat food to anything out there in the old coop.

Bill
 
Vaughn, Opossum (possums in forum speak :)) fur has been used in ladies furs if I am not mistaken. Most times in the wild they are pretty dirty and not attractive looking. But it is a very soft fur. In the spring time when they birth sometime the mother gets killed and the babies will be in the pouch (like a kangaroo). The State Park Naturalist had two that were rescued that she raised and used them in educational programs in the schools and at the park. She said they were not really bright but made a good pet. They are garbage disposals and will eat anything!
 
If you caught one, that means there are still 9,999 in the woods within a couple hundred yards of your home. When we first moved to our present home, I tried (live) trapping a nuisance raccoon. The trap was set every night for three months. Of those aprox. 90 days, only four did not catch anything. Of the four, two didn't catch anything, two I got raccoons. But all the other nights, about 86, I got possums. I dutifully took them to my farm (we didn't live there) and released them. But that routine got old and I gave up. There is no end to their numbers.
 
We had a possum who kept frequenting the neighborhood. I had a little Cairn terrier, a ferocious beast if there ever was one. I would take her out for her nightly and we would encounter the possum once in a while. She would take off like a pit bull and make a run at the possum. When she got to within a few feet of it, the possum would invariably hiss and my little brave dog would slide to a stop and begin wagging her tail...Such bravery!:p

Anyway, one night the possum was in our neighbor's fenced backyard and they let out their Airedale terrier which is a much larger dog. No one knows for certain what happend but there was a huge racket with the dog barking and everything and they called the dog in. It came running and my neighbor went outside to see what all the excitement was about. Meanwhile the possum which had fainted revived in their house where the dog had dropped it. It strolls through the living room where the lady of the house is watching TV and she proceeds to scream so loud that everyone in the neighborhood hears her. One neighbor calls the police. My neighbor, the husband, rushes into the house and finds his wife standing on the kitchen table. The dog is running around the house sniffing, barking and knocking over furniture. The possum is under a chair and the dog can smell it but cannot get to it. My neighbor is trying to console his wife and find out what the heck is the problem and she is telling him that a giant rat is in the house. He gets a pistol and starts wandering around the house. The police arrive and see him with a gun through the window and call in more officers and a SWAT team.

We didn't realize how out of hand this had gotten until we hear a police officer on a bull horn, "Drop the gun and come out with your hands up!" My wife was sleeping on the couch until this happened. She is scared to death and I am peering out the window trying to figure out what is going on. My neighbor comes out of his house and lays down in the grass in the front yard and is handcuffed by about 10 policemen. His wife continues to bellow in the kitchen. Finally things get calmed down and several policemen enter the house and after a short search one of them comes out holding a possum by the tail.

We celebrate possum day in our neighborhood every October 7 since that is the anniversary of the great possum seige.....
 
Mike, that is a great story! I am sure the neighbors enjoy recounting it now, but I can just imagine what it must have been like to live through it. We have not had a possum in the house, but we have have a couple of incursions by flying squirrels.

Bill
 
Only 18 days til Possum Day!!:rofl:

Mike, how is this wonderful holiday celebrated?

We have a neighborhood cook out on the cul-de-sac and some of us imbibe adult beverages and recount the story with gusto. It all started with the hurricane Floyd block party but we changed it to the 6th Annual Great Possum Siege and Hurricane Block party....:D Sometime I will regale you with the Hurricane Floyd block party story....:rofl:

There is another part to the story. Evidently while the police were searching the house they went into the first floor bath which happens to house the laundry room. Evidently my neighbor, the female had some of her unmentionables (granny panties) hanging in there on coat hangers. She told us that now everytime she sees a policeman she gets embarrassed because she thinks that they all saw her underwear.:p:rofl:
 
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