Marty Walsh
Member
- Messages
- 1,396
- Location
- Southern Georgia
Denise and I walked out onto the back deck at 5:00 this morning to have coffee before we each set about getting to work. Denise peered over at the pool steps and thought she saw something...it was still very dark out.
Turning on the rear lights revealed that we had a visitor that had snuck into the pool some time during the night:
...........
Seems the little critter got into the pool, made it up onto the steps, but couldn't manage to span the distance from the steps to the cool-decking!
While we were considering safe options to get it out of the pool...without it's monsterously sharp claws destroying the liner in the pool...our guard cat woke up and decided to take things into its own hands/paws:
..............
He quickly realized he didn't want any part of our visitor, so he retreated up to the deck, where he sat down and watched. I didn't blame the cat...I didn't want any part of the ugly thing either:
But, it was either hope that it would eventually make it out of the pool safely, without doing any damage, or come up with a way to safely extricate our guest.
We got a trash can, a couple of pairs of heavy gloves, and a broom. I held the trash can behind the critter (submerged in the pool), while Denise coerced it into the can with the broom. It wasn't very happy being herded...as evidenced by the awful loud grunting it did the whole time...but we got it out of the pool safe and sound:
I walked out back towards the creek on the back of the property and released him. Hopefully he learned his lesson and will keep away from the chlorine filled 'pond' in the future!
I thought about just diving into the pool, sneaking up behind the armadillo and grabbing it from behind to toss it out of the pool, but a few things made me decide against that plan. First and foremost, I hadn't even had a cup of coffee yet. Second, armadillos are really good swimmers, and if he sensed me behind him and decided to jump back into the water...well, I'd have had to get out of its way quickly, and still hope it didn't damage the liner! And of course, the fact that it was only 5am and the pool water was only about 78, I decided a safer (and warmer) plan of attack was called for!
In the end, we wound up delayed an hour or so before we could get working, but the pool and critter are both safe!
- Marty -
Turning on the rear lights revealed that we had a visitor that had snuck into the pool some time during the night:
...........
Seems the little critter got into the pool, made it up onto the steps, but couldn't manage to span the distance from the steps to the cool-decking!
While we were considering safe options to get it out of the pool...without it's monsterously sharp claws destroying the liner in the pool...our guard cat woke up and decided to take things into its own hands/paws:
..............
He quickly realized he didn't want any part of our visitor, so he retreated up to the deck, where he sat down and watched. I didn't blame the cat...I didn't want any part of the ugly thing either:
But, it was either hope that it would eventually make it out of the pool safely, without doing any damage, or come up with a way to safely extricate our guest.
We got a trash can, a couple of pairs of heavy gloves, and a broom. I held the trash can behind the critter (submerged in the pool), while Denise coerced it into the can with the broom. It wasn't very happy being herded...as evidenced by the awful loud grunting it did the whole time...but we got it out of the pool safe and sound:
I walked out back towards the creek on the back of the property and released him. Hopefully he learned his lesson and will keep away from the chlorine filled 'pond' in the future!
I thought about just diving into the pool, sneaking up behind the armadillo and grabbing it from behind to toss it out of the pool, but a few things made me decide against that plan. First and foremost, I hadn't even had a cup of coffee yet. Second, armadillos are really good swimmers, and if he sensed me behind him and decided to jump back into the water...well, I'd have had to get out of its way quickly, and still hope it didn't damage the liner! And of course, the fact that it was only 5am and the pool water was only about 78, I decided a safer (and warmer) plan of attack was called for!
In the end, we wound up delayed an hour or so before we could get working, but the pool and critter are both safe!
- Marty -