getting soft hearted and soft headed!

Been noticing that my custom turned cat food bowl was cleaner than clean every morning so I put out a live trap next to it. About as bad of news as possible this morning, a half grown possum! Means there are more around to catch.

What do you do with a half grown possum in a trap? No .22 with sights on it, don't know where any .22 ammo is anyway. No pellet gun. Readily available options: .380 mouse gun, .45, .223, pond. Well there is one other option, haul him off away from people and dump him out. Cost me a gallon of gas and then when I got back home I saw he had defecated all over the floor near my lathe so I got to clean up possum poo and hose down my area I wanted to start work in early this morning. Luckily for him I couldn't see the mess he made before I made my decision!

I used to be a pretty serious varmint hunter. This nutria took one look at me and knew he was a goner! Fortunately for him I was hunting with my canon that day.

Hu
 

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When I was in LA, I had to keep my wife from feeding the opossums and racoons in the yard. I know racoons can tear things up, but are opossums harmful?
 
The possums cause all the problems a raccoon does, maybe a few more. Aside from that, my cat keeps getting a few new cuts and chunks of hair missing. I noticed when she is eating after dark she is spending more time watching for something coming to take her food away than eating. Time to thin out the varmints before they get too bad. Feeding them, even unintentionally, will have the place chock full of varmints.

A funny story about the raccoons, I was at City Park down in New Orleans and saw a raccoon near an old building. Looked like a good photo op so I took a few pictures. Squatted down to take a few more and coons came boiling out from everywhere! Turned out a man had been feeding them regularly for a couple years and was feeding over fifty there. I have some pictures of him feeding them, pretty amazing. He knew which ones liked what and when some of them got too aggressive with others he would fuss and reach out and give a wild raccoon a slap! A lot braver than I am. Not too long after that other people started finding the raccoons, decided that they were tame and put there by the park for them to take pictures of their children with and things like that. They had to go and the park hired a trapper to catch almost fifty of them and relocate them. Always figured he relocated them to the fur and meat markets or if not turned them loose in an area he then heavily trapped. A few remained and I don't know current status of the park raccoons.

I did feed them one time to let a fellow photographer take pictures. I normally don't feed wild animals but when these were getting fed twice a day I broke my rule. It was amazing, there was an old silver sow that was very gentle. She would ease around the side and you would barely feel a paw on your leg, never a hint of a claw. All the silver raccoons were gentler than the red ones. Always hoped she didn't meet a bad end, she was a sweetheart. Not much of a picture especially after reducing quality to post but this is one of the raccoons with the silver guard hair in the park. Huge old live oaks make this a great place to take pictures. Lakes and other water features too.

Hu
 

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At my first house in LA, I'd occasionally get possums on the back porch looking for leftover dog food. One evening I found an adolescent one on the porch rail, with momma nowhere in sight. I was able to pet it lightly with a single finger, and was amazed at how soft its fur was. It looked coarse and rough, but was smoother than silk.

At my second house in LA, one evening I found a family of racoons in my laundry room chowing down on a knocked-over bag of dog food. (They had used the doggie door to get in.)

And at my third house in LA, one night the widow lady next door called me at 2:00 AM (she knew I'd be up) and asked if she could borrow a dog. Turns out she had four or five racoons hanging around her pool. They showed no fear of her and would not leave. One of our dogs at the time, Sasha, was very good on voice commands, so she and I went over and had a little herding practice with the racoons. She was very proud of herself afterward...still makes me smile thinking about it.
 
opossums are so stupid they don't have a brain.:) I had a couple come up on the porch, eating the cats food. Well I took the 22 put it to there head( touching there head) blew them off the porch hand rail. What they did next surprised me, they got to there feet hissed at me then walked away.:huh: Did this to two of them with in a half hr. That's why I say they don't have a brain.:thumb:
 
Been noticing that my custom turned cat food bowl was cleaner than clean every morning so I put out a live trap next to it. About as bad of news as possible this morning, a half grown possum! Means there are more around to catch.

What do you do with a half grown possum in a trap?

Hu

When we were living in Huffman, TX a mile or so from Lake Houston, we had something getting into the garbage cans... My son was home one weekend and opened a garbage can to toss in his field stripped cigarette... we had a full grown possom sitting on the bottom of the can and hissing at whoever opened the can... I just left him there and on garbage day set the can out for pick up.... glad I wasn't home when the garbage man opened that can. :D:D
 
The possums are dumb as a box of rocks. The one I caught last night kept going to the open end of the live trap and turning around after I opened the door, obviously wasn't really looking. Finally got it out. The possum was fairly mellow. Caught a feral kitten tonight, it was much less friendly! Went and swapped my sleep shorts for blue jeans and put on shoes before turning it loose, I didn't want bit or scratched by any of these critters. Rabies shots are still no fun!

I have shot a good many possums over the years, usually while coon hunting but as a target of opportunity too. Tasted some once when I was at a friend's house. Nasty greasy tasting meat. Not sure if they all taste like that but I haven't been curious enough to find out. Ate half-grown raccoon, it ate just fine. Of course you can bring a Cajun lady anything that walks, swims, or flies and they can make it taste good enough to make any chef jealous! A Cajun friend of mine had an aunt teach him how to make a dish with choupique.(bowfin, grinder, cypress trout, a prehistoric looking trash fish by any name) After that choupique was all he wanted to fish for.

Hu
 
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