The great 3am Christmas Eve Opossum Massacre

[centrop67]

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd share my little incident last night.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures, but they probably would have been too graphic to post.

I settled in for a good nigh't sleep with today being my last workday for the rest of the year. My mom's in town visiting for the holidays, and we had a nice dinner at the local pub.

Sometime around 3am, the dogs got a little restless. I was out cold, but my wife got up to see what's what and let Radar and Leela out in the backyard.

Next thing I know is my wife screaming "honey, honey, get up. Radar's got something in the backyard."

As groggy as I was, I figured the neighbors dog dug into our yard again, or a stray cat wondered into the yard. I live in a very suburban neighborhood with little in the way of wildlife habitat, though I have seen raccoons and possums in the yard in the past.

I throw on some pants, and run outside. Radar comes running right to me while Leela continues to bark and growl at something. Of course, all the chaos is happening in the corner of my backyard with absolutely no lighting.

I manage to corral Leela and Radar into the house, and then I go searching for a flashlight. I figure by the time I get back out there, I'll either be disposing of the body or finding evidence of a struggle but no body.

I grab a shovel and go on the hunt. Sure enough it looks like I've got a body. A mangled mess of a possum - not moving. I scoop the poor creature up and head for the trash can.

At this point I am thinking, yes this is the animal that coined the term playing possum, but the lifeless and bloody thing laying at the end of the shovel couldn't possibly be alive.

To get to the trash can I have to squeeze by my boat, open the front gate, and then navigate the trash lid all while balancing this thing on the shovel head.

No sooner do I get out the front gate, the possum stands up on the shovel, leaps off, and scurries into the neighbors yard.

Possums will be possums!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all my friends on the forum!

[Raven]

I just read this. You can't be too squeamish owning a Dutch. How many expletives spilled from your mouth as you crawled back into bed for "a good nights' sleep?"

[centrop67]

I think I might have been too tired for expletives.

Even though I knew there was a chance it was still alive, it still scared me.

FOLLOW UP:

Last night the darn critter showed up again. At least it wasn't 3am. This time, Leela and Radar jumped up in unison, snatched it off a 6-foot fence, and proceeded to play tug of war with it.

I can't say for certain it was the same one, but I can say for certain it won't be returning (made sure of it myself). I know that may seem a little harsh to some, but Radar is a wild mess for several minutes after each incident. It's not good for his brain chemistry to have that reoccur.

[Raven]

It's not good for his brain chemistry to have that reoccur.

Absolutely.

[centrop67]

Had another possum incident this week. No survivors

[Dutchringgirl]

oh no ! that's a shame.

[TimL_168]

That sucks. They're really pretty decent critters to have around. My new neighbor failed to tell me she has cats...That she leaves out... clock's ticking.

[centrop67]

They're really pretty decent critters to have around

Yeah, I know. I really try to discourage it when I see them running along the fence in my backyard. I do my best to scare them off, but Radar and Leela are quick and usually smell them before I even know what's going on.

My new neighbor failed to tell me she has cats...

The neighbors across the street have a street cat, that is, they let it roam the neighborhood all the time. They've been warned by my next door neighbors who had an unfortunate incident with their cat and my dogs, and I constantly see it on my cameras running around in my boat.

[TimL_168]

my garden is full of cat excrement. It's becoming increasingly difficult to tolerate.